Smartphones are quietly redefining the laptop

Yesterday’s review of the Dynabook Satellite Pro says the laptop computer looks and feels dated next to modern MacBooks and Surfaces.

Yesterday’s review of the Dynabook Satellite Pro criticises it for looking and feeling dated beside modern MacBooks and Surface devices—this observation hints at a deeper behind the scenes.

Modern MacBooks and Surfaces include smartphone technology. The M1 processor in today’s MacBooks derives from an Arm chip Apple developed for the iPhone.

Microsoft uses an ARM processor in its latest Surface Pro models.

Power-efficient ARM processors

Compared with the Intel processors used in more traditional laptops, ARM sips power. Computers made with ARM can go the best part of a day between charges. The M1 MacBook Air battery gets close to 24 hours.

Huawei’s MateBook also incorporates phone-derived tech in a sleek laptop form. It's no accident that Huawei is a phone maker bringing its expertise to the laptop market.

There are a 2-in-1 and similar devices from HP and Lenovo. While they might not derive directly from phones and may include Intel processors, they mange to have many phone-like characteristics.

Legacy laptop design

In contrast, Dynabook and the other more traditional computer designs trace their ancestry direct from flip-lid laptops. It’s a format that has been around since the mid-1980s.

Yes, the Dynabook is slimmer than those models. It is way more powerful and its batteries last longer. It is better. But its pedigree comes from the old breed. Not from the new phone lineage.

Where phones become PCs

Phones and PCs have been converging for more than two decades—especially as PC sales waned and smartphones soared. Lockdown-driven work-from-home trends further blurred the lines.

Today, there are far more phones in use than PCs, and for many—even those who own both—the phone has become the primary computer.

Creative tasks still favour PCs

For creative work, like editing a movie or drafting a novel, computers still pull ahead. Sure, you could do it on a phone, but a big screen and keyboard make a world of difference.

Meanwhile, devices like tablets increasingly mimic phones—often with SIM slots—making them feel more like oversized smartphones.

While tablets are not designed for voice calls, that’s no longer a phone’s primary function.

Always-on, everywhere connectivity

In an era of ubiquitous 5G and abundant wireless bandwidth, it’s hard to remember life without constant internet access.

Apple blurs device boundaries by using ARM across iPhones, iPads and MacBooks—making their tech stack remarkably uniform.

Microsoft has struggled with ARM compatibility for Windows apps, since many haven’t been rewritten to suit the architecture. Future Windows releases may improve this, but Windows 11 already supports running Android apps (i.e. phone-made apps).

Apple’s new Macs do the same, running iPhone apps natively. The convergence is well underway.

ARM chips leap ahead

Arm processors are at least a generation ahead of anything Intel has. The traditional chip maker is in a tailspin and does not have a plausible roadmap.

At the high end, MacBooks and Surface devices dominate. At the other end, Chromebooks—essentially cloud-driven laptops—offer simplicity in a modern form.

Chromebooks may be simple, but in their own way they are every bit as modern as MacBooks and Surfaces.

The internet-dependent Chromebook

There’s not much phone hardware in a Chromebook. Yet they share one important characteristic with phones. Both sets of devices need a constant internet connection to be any use.

You could work with a laptop on an internet-free desert island. A Chromebook is pointless without a connection.

Chromebooks, MacBooks, Surfaces and modern tablets embody progress in a way that legacy Windows laptops no longer can. We’ve crossed a threshold—in a few years, the shift will be clear in hindsight.