What you need to know
- Adobe Lightroom now runs natively on Windows 10 on ARM devices.
- A new video shows how the Surface Pro X handles Adobe Lightroom.
- Adobe Lightroom was optimized for Windows 10 on ARM at the same time Adobe rolled out support for Apple's M1 processors.
Microsoft Surface Pro X is an impressive piece of hardware, but app limitations caused by it running on an ARM processor can hold it back. Microsoft is tackling this in two ways. Microsoft recently rolled out emulation support for 64-bit apps running on Windows 10 on ARM. This allows a wide variety of apps to run on devices like the Surface Pro X that couldn't run on it before. Because it's in emulation, it's not as good as native applications. In comes Microsoft's push to get developers to optimize their apps for Windows 10 on ARM. Adobe is in the process of adopting ARM, and Lightroom recently gained support.
Won's video is on the original Surface Pro X, not the newer model with an SQ2 processor. In his video, Won runs Lightroom through some basic tasks, such as launching the app, importing photos, editing images, and exporting images. Loading images and scrolling looks a bit glitchy, but editing images seems smooth.
Have you used Lightroom on a Windows 10 on ARM device? How did it perform? Let us know in the comments below.
Adobe Lightroom is one of Adobe's core editing apps. It allows you to make professional-grade edits to images. The app itself is free but requires a paid subscription.
On the go
The Surface Pro X is a drastic redesign of Microsoft's Surface Pro line, slimming everything down with an ARM processor and LTE connectivity.
