14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft pulled Windows 10 version 1809 (October 2018 Update) only a few days after discovering a critical bug potentially leading to data loss, and since then, the company has been working on getting a fix ready for everyone.
This means version 1809 is still not available for devices worldwide, and this causes quite a headache for Microsoft’s partners too.
The Windows 10 on ARM push has received a refresh this fall thanks to the arrival of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 chip, which is specifically optimized for Windows 10 and supported only by… Windows 10 October 2018 Update.
The awkward thing is that while the first devices powered by the Snapdragon 850 are already here, Windows 10 version 1809 is not. In other words, because Microsoft’s latest operating system is no longer up for grabs, manufacturers had no other option than to downgrade their devices to Windows 10 April 2018 Update (version 1803).
Unsupported Windows
Yet, given that the Snapdragon 850 chip is only fully supported on version 1809, it means the first devices powered by this processor run an unsupported version of Windows 10.
As reported by Neowin, there are two devices currently impacted by this odd situation, namely the Samsung Galaxy Book2 and Lenovo Yoga C630.
On the good side, there are no reported bugs that may hit the stability of these devices on Windows 10 April 2018 Update, but there’s no doubt that further refinements are available in the October update. So when this OS update finally gets the go-ahead, the performance of Windows 10 on ARM devices running on Snapdragon 850 could get a boost too, though for now, nobody can tell for sure when this is going to happen.
It’s believed the October update could go live as soon as the next week on Patch Tuesday, but Microsoft clearly takes its time to resolve issues in the operating system.