Why is the surface with snapdragon still got problems with most apps after 1 year

Hello Sadra! Thank you for reaching out. I am Tin, an independent advisor, and glad to assist you today with this issue. You are totally justified in your frustrations-and you are not the only one. For over a couple of years, the ecosystem of software for Windows on Snapdragon/ARM-based laptops has been in the shadow of the traditional x86 (Intel/AMD) system; major problems will, in fact, go on till mid-2025. Let's analyze why that is the case and what the near future looks like.

Why Snapdragon (ARM) Laptops Have App Compatibility Issues

Different Architecture:

Snapdragon uses ARM architecture while most Windows apps get built for x86/x64 (Intel/AMD).

To operate on ARM architecture, apps need to get recompiled or must run on emulation, which is extraordinarily slow and buggy.

Slow Developer Adoption:

Because the market share is still small, developers have not rushed to support Windows on ARM.

Until very recently, ARM-based Windows laptops (yours, as an example) were not powerful or widespread enough to deem the work worth it.

Microsoft Avec Mixed Support:

Windows 11 had an improved ARM support; however; x64 app emulation was only introduced somewhat recently-and it is still not quite right.

System-level software, Anti-cheat-breaking games, and performance-hungry apps still break or slow down.

What's Still Broken?

Discord: Either an ARM version still has bugs, or it runs via emulation with bugs.

Games: Game compatibility is mostly for x64, so they fail on ARM because:

There is no ARM version.

Anti-cheat is not supporting ARM.

Driver limitations on ARM systems put GPU-based limits on.

Adobe Creative Cloud, OBS, and more may have performance hits or an incompatibility.

What Is Being Done?

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite & X Plus (2024-2025):

These chips have finally gained real attention, with Microsoft betting big on them.

OEM partners like Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Asus have begun sales of their new Copilot+ PCs built on those chips.

Microsoft Pushing for Native ARM64 Apps:

Microsoft is now pressuring, or at least encourage, developers to build ARM64-native apps especially for Windows Store and pre-installed apps.

Some big names (Zoom, Photoshop, VLC, etc.) now have native ARM versions.

Emulation Layer to Work Better:

In Windows 11, there is an x64 emulation layer for ARM. Improved still but far from being adequate for heavy apps and games.

When Will It Be Fixed?

In reality:

There will be an observable improvement during late 2025 and until somewhere in the middle of 2026, especially if:

Snapdragon X Elite renders well.

Microsoft pushes hard for ARM support.

A few more devs develop native versions or close the emulation bugs.

What You Can Do Now

Look for the native ARM64 versions of the apps you use.

When native apps perform poorly, use web versions (such as Discord Web, Photoshop Online, etc.).

Think about switching to an x86 laptop for unsupported software, particularly for gaming.

Please try these steps and let me know how it goes. If you run into any issues, just reply back with the details.

Best regards,

Tin