Microsoft's new ARM-based laptops will go more than a day between battery charges

Laptops should be able to offer true all-day working, and some

Microsoft's forthcoming ARM-based laptops will be able to go more than a day between recharges, according to reports that claim that battery life on the new Windows 10 devices will be "beyond expectations".

The claims are made in a report in Trusted Reviews.

Microsoft's first round of Windows 10 machines, powered by ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 CPUs, will be out in December.

The company is already testing hundreds of devices running Qualcomm processors to check Windows compatibility. Pete Bernard, principal group program manager for Connectivity Partners at Microsoft, says: "We've been on this journey for almost a year. We've been working furiously in Redmond and with our partners in San Diego."

The battery life is described as "really really good" and "beyond expectations" with multi-day results being quoted in testing. In other words, at worst, they ought to provide genuine all-day running.

Bernard added: "I would consider it a game-changer in terms of the way people have experienced PCs in the past."

HP, Asus and Lenovo will be launch partners, but the plan is to launch the Qualcomm Snapdragon-based Windows machines to a variety of OEMs at differing price points.

The news is somewhat ironic, given that only last week Microsoft confirmed it was ending development of Windows Phone.

One of the sticking points in Windows Phone's success, or rather lack of it, has been the fact that Windows was tied to x86 and x64 chips, meaning that the Continuum feature, enabling users to switch between phone and computer as a single device, didn't work properly.

The company confirmed that it had overcome its architectural issues, but although we look set to see the benefits in the form of larger form factors, the news has come too late for Windows as a mobile device operating system. The company is now focused on Android as a partner to Windows.

Opening up the opportunity of Qualcomm-powered laptops does, however, mean that we're likely to see a new generation of ultra-slim, ultra-light tablets and ultrabooks, and the company has said its main consideration will be mobile computing.

However, Microsoft and Windows is as good as dead in the smartphone market.