Intel-based devices can run the full range of Android apps, even ones

that were originally written for the ARM architecture. However, if an

app contains ARM-specific code, then it must be translated before it

can be executed.

This takes time and energy to do, so battery life and overall

performance may suffer. Whether this is a serious problem is up for

debate: our reviews indicate that Intel does tend to trail behind ARM

in battery life, but the gap isn’t huge, and overall performance is

generally very good.

At any rate, Intel is working hard to encourage developers to produce

Intel-native versions of their apps, so hopefully translation will

become progressively less of an issue.