Qualcomm has announced the latest addition to its X series of laptop CPUs, featuring a lower-specced variant that makes it ideal for super thin and lightweight laptops, providing a more budget-friendly option than the earlier X Elite and X Plus 10-Core chips. With remarkably low energy consumption, coupled with successful CPU and GPU components, these innovative chips are poised to usher in a paradigm shift towards ultra-portable, long-lasting, and nearly gaming-capable laptops.
As gaming laptops with AMD or Intel CPUs excel in processing power and gaming performance, Qualcomm’s innovative Snapdragon X series is catering to a distinct niche: gamers seeking a balance between prolonged battery life and occasional gaming needs.
The Snapdragon X+ 8 Core variant is comprised of two distinct configurations: the XIP-46-100 and XIP-42-100, both built upon the Qualcomm X series architecture. The new X series processors incorporate cutting-edge X Plus 10-Core and X Elite chip designs, boasting impressive core counts of ten and twelve respectively. These aren’t the ones variations, albeit.
The X Plus 8-Core processors feature a downsized Adreno graphics processing unit, complementing their decreased CPU core reliance. The X Elite’s GPU is situated to operate alongside at an impressive 4.6 TFLOPS – roughly 10 times more powerful than before.12 The NVIDIA Tegra X1’s X Plus 8-Core processor boasts an astonishing 1 trillion (1,000,000,000,000) floating-point operations per second, which translates to either 2.1 teraFLOPS or 1.7 teraFLOPS. Typical entry-level desktop graphics cards, like the NVIDIA RTX 4060 or AMD RX 7600, usually boast TFLOPS ratings around 20 TFLOPS for comparison purposes. Meanwhile, AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 processors top out at around 12 trillion floating-point operations per second (TFLOPs), while Intel’s Lunar Lake processors peak at a relatively modest 3.8 TFLOPs.
The lineup now features an innovative 8-Core configuration, alongside a newly introduced 10-Core variant that does not include a boost clock for its CPU, mirroring the existing 10-Core model otherwise identical.
While the X Plus 8-Core may not be a gaming behemoth, it still enables running some 3D games at moderate settings, albeit not with high-end graphics. We captured a 3DMark Wild Life score of 23.5fps on the more powerful 2.1TFLOPs variant, as shown below, and a score of 19.2fps for the 1.7TFLOPS model. The console is designed to also play a wide range of 2D video games that are compatible with its capabilities. What’s exceptional about this chip is its ability to power up to three external displays with resolutions of up to 4K, all running simultaneously at 60Hz.
Champing at the bit for Microsoft’s new CoPilot+, or eager to explore alternative AI options, the good news is that the Snapdragon X Plus 8-Core processor packs a whopping up to 45 TFLOPs of neural processing power from its Hexagon Neural Processing Unit (NPU). This device enables on-device AI processing, eliminating the need for cloud-based services for specific tasks.
What’s truly fascinating about these chips is their remarkably low energy consumption, which should directly translate into extended battery life. Qualcomm refrains from disclosing specific TDP figures for its latest processors, but makes bold assertions about extended battery life. According to the manufacturer, the 8-core processor is said to nearly double the battery life of the Intel Core i5-155U when running demanding video apps. Additionally, the company claims it would last 77% longer while streaming YouTube content and generally outperform its competitors in various scenarios.
Meanwhile, many current X Elite laptops are capable of lasting over 20 hours of uninterrupted use. As clock speeds have decreased and overall efficiency has improved in this X Collection model, it is reasonable to expect even longer battery life durations.
With some manufacturers having already launched laptops boasting extraordinary battery life, such as those from Dell. The Dell Latitude 5455 allegedly boasts a remarkable 27-hour battery lifespan, but its rival, the XPS 13 laptop, powered by the innovative Intel Lunar Lake platform, is hot on its heels, promising an impressive 26 hours of continuous usage? Prior to this, however, devices like the Dell XPS 13, which had previously achieved battery life of around 14 hours, demonstrated significant advancements in this area, driven by both Intel and Qualcomm’s efforts.
What’s truly remarkable about these power banks is their ability to consistently retain a small percentage of their charge, eliminating the frustration of batteries suddenly dying unexpectedly when you need them most – such as when your laptop is tucked away in your bag. No need to worry about abandoning your Windows laptop on standby with just 20% battery life – Qualcomm’s chips ensure you still have days’ worth of usage remaining. Let’s wait and see if Intel’s new chips prove just as reliable.
While all Qualcomm X Series processors share a crucial characteristic, it’s that they are fundamentally rooted in the Arm CPU architecture rather than Intel’s x86 framework? Since ARM-based processors are native to Android and Windows on ARM is designed to support both platforms, the chips don’t inherently facilitate all your typical Windows applications, which typically expect an x86 CPU architecture. Using dynamic recompilation, these CPUs seamlessly emulate functions to execute natively on the Arm processor cores.
While the prospect of leveraging X Elite chips may seem intimidating at first, the benefits of enhanced software support and productivity have thus far yielded impressive results. Some notable limitations at present include certain Adobe features, such as Adobe After Effects, which currently lack support, and kernel-level anti-cheat mechanisms employed by specific video games that also fail to function effectively. While most video games function without issue, a notable exception is the popular multiplayer genre, which includes titles such as Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2, and Fortnite, that often experience problems.
Six producers have launched laptops featuring these chips, with Asus’ VivoBook S 15 serving as an example below. As a result, consumers can expect a wave of long-lasting, thin-and-light laptops to hit the market from today onward, priced starting at just $799. While you may not experience high-end gaming on Black Fable Wukong or Star Wars Outlaws at 4K on these portable machines, they’re poised to challenge traditional AMD and Intel-powered laptops in terms of value for your money as a reliable secondary gaming option.
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For those seeking extra engaging laptop gaming experiences, explore our comprehensive guide on the best laptop video games that won’t overwhelm new laptops’ capabilities, featuring titles that either don’t exhaust your GPU or are optimized for portability.
