For decades, Windows PCs have been powered by the same type of chip - usually an Intel or AMD processor. They've had many improvements over the years, but the fundamentals have been the same. This is now changing, and it may have important implications on the next PC you buy.
The latest batch of laptops released (including Mircosoft's own "Surface" range) are now using CPUs made by the company "Arm". "So what?", you may say...
In some ways, you would be right to say this. In terms of the core functionality of the device, you wouldn't know the difference (except that most reports are the battery life is better and the machine response time is quicker). Windows will still boot and look the same. Your web browser will still open the same and give you access to the internet as usual.
However, possible problems await you depending on what exactly you use your PC for, and what other things you connect to it. We won't get into the technical details here, but the way these new Arm processors work is fundamentally different in some respects to the way that the traditional processors that have powered Windows up until now work. As you might expect, all the apps you use interact with this processor, and up until now, they've been able to rely on that processor working in a certain way. This change means that unless these apps have been changed to support these new processors, in theory, they won't work.
We say "In theory" here, because Microsoft have pre-empted the massive problems this would cause for people that run older software that hasn't been updated to support these changes, and they've added some cleverness that allows your machine to pretend it's using one of the older style chips. This isn't the ideal way to run apps, and they may run a little slower as a result, but it should keep things backwardly compatible until an updated version appears, or you eventually replace it with something newer.
So where do the problems come in? The process above isn't foolproof. Reports are that it largely works well. However, Microsoft acknowledge that you may have issues if you use peripherals (printers, scanners etc) that haven't had software updates to support these new processors. As these are devices that people tend to keep for years - often well beyond the point they're officially supported by the manufacturer, it could well be the answer to "When will that update come?" will be "Never."
Additionally, Microsoft have said some antivirus apps will no longer work, and you may have problems running some games.
We write all this not to discourage you from buying one of these devices, but just to alert you to the fact that these issues exist. If you're the sort of person that uses your PC for Microsoft 365, web browsing and connecting to the office network, you won't have any problems. However, if you plan to connect an ancient printer to it, or use it for niche applications, you may want to check that these work on "Arm-based" devices before buying one.