The End of an Era: Windows 11 Will No Longer Support Older Snapdragon Processors
Brook.X
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, released in 2016, is based on Arm v8A and uses the Arm Cortex-A73 core. Microsoft has never officially supported Snapdragon 835 or earlier models, but in reality, users have been able to install Windows 10/11 Arm versions on these processors.
However, this will only last until this fall, as the upcoming Windows 11 24H2 version, scheduled for release in October, will crash if users try to install it on Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processors.
Lumia 950 XL on Windows 10 Arm (based WoA)
This issue is similar to Microsoft's requirement for SSE 4.2 instruction sets on x86 processors, where the system will crash if the CPU doesn't support specific instruction sets. This means it's currently impossible to bypass (at least, no method has been found yet).
You might think, "Who still uses 2016 Qualcomm processors?" And indeed, few people do. However, the Xiaomi 6, a flagship device, uses the Snapdragon 835, and it has been possible to install Windows 10/11 Arm versions and other systems on it.
Additionally, the Lumia 950 XL, a favorite among Windows on Arm (WoA) enthusiasts, uses the Snapdragon 810. The WoA project aims to port Windows 10/11 Arm versions to Lumia devices, allowing some Lumia devices to continue functioning. After all, Windows 10 Mobile is already dead, and without a system update, the Lumia 950 XL would be nothing more than a collector's item.
