Kerry Wan/ZDNET
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ZDNET's key takeaways
PCs built with Arm processors work well with general productivity apps.
Backup software may be unable to restore from an external drive.
Gamers and hobbyists who want to dual-boot Linux will run into problems.
Last year, when Microsoft released its first Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, I bought the cheapest one I could find. To my surprise, that Surface Pro 11 turned out to be a capable addition to my collection of computing devices, and I used it as my everyday work machine for about six months.
Also: Microsoft said my PC couldn't run Windows 11, but I upgraded in 5 minutes anyway - here's how
Since then, I've acquired two more PCs that have Arm-based processors instead of the traditional Intel CPU -- a Surface Laptop and a Dell XPS 13, both equipped with Snapdragon X Elite chips. With more than a year's experience under my belt, I've got a solid understanding of what these machines can do and, more importantly, where they fall short.
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