Qualcomm's QC710 Developer Kit ($219), also known as the Liva Mini Box QC710 Desktop and based on ECS's Liva mini-PC platform, is designed as an app-testing platform. But it also shows the chipmaker's challenges as it tries to get manufacturers and application developers over to its ARM-based Windows-on-Snapdragon system. Running Qualcomm's midrange Snapdragon 7c chip, this tiny PC is desperately underpowered in most ways, underscoring that it's really only for hobbyists or Windows-on-ARM application developers. Consumers specifically on the hunt for Snapdragon Windows PCs should check out systems like the Lenovo Flex 5G or the Microsoft Surface Pro X instead.
Windows on ARM: Let the Transition Continue
Qualcomm and Microsoft have been trying to transition Windows from Intel-compatible chips to low-power ARM instruction-set chips for years now. The efforts never seem to take, with a few laptops coming out on each platform, and none of them ever selling well.
This year, though, the conversation changed. Apple released new MacBook Pro models based on ARM-compatible processors, showing that ARM doesn't have to play third-fiddle on performance behind Intel and AMD. So now Qualcomm's Developer Kit comes along to try to encourage Windows application developers to make the jump to ARM-native apps.
Of course, using a Snapdragon chip in a desktop PC kills the platform's two greatest advantages. Snapdragon laptops like the Flex 5G have long battery life because of low power consumption, and they have integrated "always-connected" 4G or 5G modems. Neither of those features makes a showing in this little box. Rather, it is just the least expensive possible platform for you, the software developer, to make sure your apps work properly.
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The QC710 is a 4.5-by-4.5-by-1.4-inch (HWD) box with a power button on top. The chassis is very light, like it's almost empty. There are no screws; you're not supposed to open this system.
On the rear, you'll find a 10/100 Ethernet port, an HDMI video output, a single USB 3.2 Type-A port, and a USB-C port for the 30-watt power connector. On the right side, there's a USB 2.0 port and a microSD card slot. You can get online with Wi-Fi 5 and connect to peripherals using Bluetooth 5.0. The box runs on a 2.4GHz Snapdragon 7c chipset, backed by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. Windows 10 comes preloaded.
Once you power it up, you notice how the little PC runs cool and silent. Thanks to the efficiency of Qualcomm's system-on-a-chip (SoC) design, Snapdragon laptops don't need cooling fans, and neither does the QC710.
Testing the QC710: Bring a Book
Apple's ARM-based M-series processors in the new MacBook Pro laptops have seized the industry's imagination. They prove that ARM performance can match or beat Intel in day-to-day applications. Even apps written for the Intel architecture can perform well on computers with Apple silicon, thanks to the Rosetta 2 emulation layer. They do take a slight performance hit compared with their optimized native versions, but given the extraordinary power of the M1 chips, the hit is often negligible.
By contrast, Microsoft and its OEM partners just seem to keep dropping the ball, over and over again, with Windows-on-ARM performance. Everything about this tiny dev kit PC feels slow, from installing applications to using the interface and loading files. Many of our standard benchmark tests just wouldn't run. Some wouldn't install, as they only come in x64 versions, and Windows 10 doesn't have x64 emulation.
Others that should run, such as the PCMark 10 Applications test using native Microsoft Office apps, didn't; that one always crashed in its Edge browser test. ARM devices running Windows 11 do support x64 emulation, and the box's Windows Update said it was eligible for Windows 11, but not when the new OS would be arriving.
In our testing, benchmark results were abysmal, whether in emulation or native. The QC710 turned in a fraction of the scores that comparison small-form-factor (SFF) PCs like the Dell Inspiron Desktop (3891), the ECS Liva Q3 Plus, and the Intel NUC 11 Pro Kit can manage. Their specs are below.
The Dell is a budget-priced compact tower; the Liva Q3 Plus is an SFF model in a chassis similar to the ECS-based dev kit; and the Intel is a peppy, pricier Core i5 mini-PC.
Handbrake, a video encoding app that is native for 64-bit ARM, proceeded at a third of the speed of our comparison PCs. Geekbench, a native benchmark that tests raw CPU performance, was a "win" because it was only 30% slower than the low-end AMD Ryzen chip in the Liva Q3.
Graphics performance as measured by 3DMark is just as depressing.
Some of the performance gap is clearly because most of the applications we were running weren't optimized. But remember, even the native Windows interface felt slow. Apple is dragging the industry forward by showing that ARM-based PCs don't have to suffer performance deficits against Intel. But until Qualcomm can offer a chip that goes toe-to-toe with even low-end Intel and AMD systems, it's going to be hard to convince manufacturers to sign up for Windows on ARM, and even harder to convince consumers to buy it.
That's where reviews have settled, too. While we never reviewed the $349 Samsung Galaxy Book Go, the flagship laptop for this generation of 7c processor, others' reviews can be summed up as, "Great price; pity about the performance."
Qualcomm's solution may come in 2023 laptops, where a future generation of its Windows platform uses new CPUs designed by a team from Nuvia, a startup the company acquired. Analysts have high hopes for those.
Verdict: A Cheap Place to Test Your Apps
The QC710's one noteworthy advantage is that it's cheap. Apple's ARM-based competitor is the Apple M1 version of the Mac mini, which costs more than three times as much. There are relatively few PCs on any platform that cost around $200, period. The few that are available for that sum, including Intel- or AMD-powered ECS Livas, are often bare-bones systems without memory or storage. As a developer platform, that makes the QC710 a wallet-friendly, albeit frustratingly slow, place to test ARM builds you're creating on your "real" PC—just in case Windows on ARM becomes, you know, a thing.
Qualcomm's QC710 Developer Kit for Windows-on-ARM apps is a fully functional PC, but it shows just how poorly Windows-on-Snapdragon devices continue to perform versus established AMD and Intel systems.
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