Windows 11 runs unexpectedly well on Raspberry Pi 4 and mobile phones

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Key notes

  • After seeing how well Windows 11 performs on tablets, laptops, and PCs, it was time for someone to try installing it on a mobile phone.
  • Developer Gustave Monce has managed to install the new OS on a Microsoft Lumia 950 XL, and the scaling is impeccable.
  • The developer enabled the cellular connectivity feature in Windows 11, on the mobile phone, by manually porting drivers from Windows 10 Mobile.
  • A tech-savvy user has announced on Reddit that he got Windows 11 to work on his Raspberry Pi 4 device, and it works great.

     

Windows 11 mobile phone

Already a well-known fact, to the ones that keep themselves informed about Windows 11 and all its inner workings, is that it has been optimized for multiple devices.

It seems to work really great on laptops and tablets with touch screens, all made possible thanks to the new in-built tablet mode, and also significantly improved gestures experience.

Now, some of the more tech-savvy people that got their hands on the preview build, are loading the OS on some devices that users didn’t even think it would run on.

Windows 11 scales surprisingly well on a mobile phone

Gustave Monce, who is a highly respected developer, took it upon himself and managed to compile an ARM build of Windows 11, using the UUP images, and installed the OS on a Microsoft Lumia 950 XL.

If you can remember, this device was released in 2015 with Windows 10 Mobile and discontinued in 2017, due to the app gap problem.

Even though Windows 11 was officially designed for tablets, laptops, and desktops, and nobody was expecting it to run on a phone, at least not now, the new operating system scales surprisingly well on a mobile device such as this one.

The Lumia 950 XL phone features a 5.7-inch display and is able to boot the new Windows with a tight and perfect fit.

Monce also managed to enable the cellular connectivity feature in Windows 11, and he did so by manually porting drivers from Windows 10 Mobile and Windows 10 on ARM project.

Microsoft’s Windows 11 apparently comes with settings that allow you to manage cellular connectivity on Snapdragon-powered Always Connected PCs, but it also seems to work fine on Windows Phones.

Raspberry Pi 4 also runs Windows 11 like a charm

Its not surprising that people try to get Windows 11 on all sorts of gadgets, the surprising part is that the OS actually works well on them.

A new Reddit thread has surfaced, which features the author getting the latest Windows 11 build running on the 4GB variant of the Raspberry Pi 4.

He claims that performance is even better than Windows 10 running on the same hardware.

To install Windows 1, this tech-savvy user simply had to download the ARM64 version of Windows 11 from UUPdump.

The next step was to flash the ISO onto an SD card, and follow the same procedure you’d use to install Windows 10.

Source: Reddit

So it would seem that Microsoft’s new operating system covers a much wider range of devices than we initially thought.

Which is amazing news, considering that, once it officially launches, everyone is going to want a piece of this OS.

Windows 11 runs on OnePlus 6T, but disables some core options

Even though this is awesome news, don’t start celebrating just yet. Yes, the new OS runs successfully on the OnePlus 6T, but there are many aspects of the phone that don’t function anymore.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are broken, and so is the audio system, which means that the Windows 11 startup sound won’t be audible on this OnePlus.

There are still some features that continued to work, such as touchscreen input, the USB port, and the GPU, which only partially works.

The developers that installed the operating system on this mobile device also managed to install and play some PC games on the phone,

Some of the titles that they tried include CS:GO, Far Cry, GTA 4, and both versions of Need For Speed: Most Wanted.


On what devices have you managed to install Windows 11? Let us know in the comments section below.

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