Today, Qualcomm held an event in Hawaii where it showed off some products that use its mobile chipsets. ASUS announced the NovaGo, its first Windows on ARM PC, alongside HP"s Envy x2.
The news comes almost a full year after Microsoft and Qualcomm took to the stage at WinHEC to announce that they"d be working together to bring full Windows 10 to ARM processors. It"s part of a broader Always Connected PC initiative, introducing devices - both with Intel and Qualcomm chips - that have cellular connectivity. The benefit of ARM though is that it gets great standby battery life, so you don"t have to worry about shutting down your PC.
While HP"s Elite x2 is a tablet with an attachable keyboard, the ASUS NovaGo is a convertible laptop. It includes Qualcomm"s latest flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 835, which was what was promised when Microsoft first announced Windows on ARM. That means that it comes with a Snapdragon X16 LTE modem, which offers gigabit LTE speeds.
It"s worth noting that Microsoft"s Surface Pro with Advanced LTE uses the Snapdragon X16 modem as well, but that"s capped at 450Mbps. ASUS says that the NovaGo is the first gigabit LTE laptop.
The device will get up to 22 hours of battery life with active use, or a whopping 30 days of standby. Of course, this is another benefit of an ARM processor. The convertible ARM-powered PC also includes up to 8GB RAM and up to 256GB of internal storage, with a 13.3-inch 1080p display.
A model with 4GB RAM and 64GB SSD will be available for $599, and you can get one with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD for $799.
Update: ASUS has told us that the NovaGo will be available in the first quarter of 2018.