This paper provides a comparative analysis of the energy efficiency between ARM and x86 architectures in mobile devices, emphasizing their implications for Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Energy efficiency is a crucial factor in mobile computing, which directly affects device performance and battery life, and thus optimizing the trade-off between power consumption and efficiency is critical. The low-power design of ARM has traditionally dominated the mobile hardware landscape, while x86, mainly designed for desktop environments, has recently been adapted for mobile platforms, introducing a new dynamic between power efficiency and raw computational capability. A variety of benchmarks as well as real-world use case evaluations are employed to analyze the effects of these two architectures on basic HCI metrics, including latency, responsiveness, and user interaction. Through this, we found that ARM-based systems are more energy efficient which suits them for long battery life tasks, while x86 is faster and energy intensive making it suitable for performance-driven applications. The findings suggest that the choice between ARM and x86 in mobile devices should be driven by application-specific performance and energy constraints. By comparing ARM and x86, we show how each architecture affects performance and battery life and offer insights into future developments aimed at achieving an optimal balance between energy efficiency and user experience, aimed at improving HCI outcomes.
Regi et al. (2025) studied this question.