Chrome is the default browser for a huge majority of Windows users who fight through Microsoft’s desperate prompts to to use Edge in order to install Google’s browser.
But with the big Arm revolution finally happening for Windows with Snapdragon X Elite laptops just around the corner, it’s time for the browser to become less x86 and more native. That’s exactly what the company has announced today, as a full version of Chrome optimized for Arm-compatible Windows PCs will be rolling out this week.
Arm flex
Of course, an Arm version of the browser has been available for Arm-based OSes for a while now, including Android, macOS and Chrome OS. There has also been Chromium — the open source codebase for Chrome that has been co-opted in Microsoft’s Edge to make an Arm-compatible browser for Windows.
But this is the first official release from Google ahead of Qualcomm’s big foray into the laptop space. Alongside this and the promise that Windows games “should already work” thanks to x64 emulation, it’s clear that Intel and AMD should be getting a little nervous right now.
"The new version of Google Chrome will help cement Snapdragon X Elite's role as the premier platform for Windows computing starting in mid 2024," said Cristiano Amon, President and CEO, Qualcomm Inc. "As we enter the era of the AI PC, we can’t wait to see Chrome shine by taking advantage of the powerful Snapdragon X Elite system."
Oh Snap(dragon)
So with Chrome coming to Snapdragon-powered laptops, what else do we know? Well, we know it’s fast — faster than AMD’s top-end APU to be specific based on the leaked benchmarks Tom’s Hardware saw. And if these numbers are to be believed, that multi-core performance is going to put Apple’s M3 MacBook Air under pressure too.
| Chipset | Single core | Multi-core |
|---|---|---|
| Snapdragon X Elite | 2,574 | 12,562 |
| Apple M3 (MacBook Air 13-inch) | 3,082 | 12,087 |
| Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (Asus Zenbook Duo (2024)) | 2,475 | 12,867 |
| AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS | 2,475 | 11,667 |
Qualcomm is also very confident in its NPU performance for AI workloads too. “We can support 70+ Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS) of AI performance across all three of our different processor units, and the eight AI PCs that have been talked about at MWC can barely do 10,” Qualcomm CMO Dom McGuire told Tom's Guide.
As for specifics, such as what new laptops will sport the chipset and how performant and energy efficient they are, we’ll just have to wait and see for ourselves.
More from Tom's Guide
- Microsoft Surface event recap — Surface Pro 10, Surface Laptop 6 and Copilot news
- First Apple M4 chip details leaked — major AI boost and possible launch window
- A bit of Windows UI from 1994 still lives in Windows 11
