Snapdragon X Plus: Qualcomm's new AI chip for laptops to rival Intel’s top processor
Snapdragon X Plus: Qualcomm's new AI chip for laptops to rival Intel’s top processor
Qualcomm reveals its full specs on Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus for 2024
🤖 The lower-tier Snapdragon X Plus has fewer CPU cores but the same AI performance as X Elite
⚡ Snapdragon X Elite promises faster speeds and lower power usage than Intel’s top chip
💻 Expect this ARM chip to power Ultrabooks on the same level as the Dell XPS 13 and HP Spectre
Qualcomm made some bold claims that its Snapdragon X Elite processor will beat chips from Apple, Intel, and AMD when it ships in new laptops arriving mid-2024. Now the chipmaker has fully revealed all the specs on its forthcoming mobile PC processors while adding a lower-tier CPU as well.
Firstly, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus will sit just under the Snapdragon X Elite family while offering largely the same level of performance. The Snapdragon X Elite features the same Oryon CPU built on the same 4nm process and even comes with the same Hexagon NPU capable of 45 TOPs for AI tasks like image generation and live-captioning.
Qualcomm has positioned its new Snapdragon X Plus (X1P-64-100) as a direct competitor for the Intel Core Ultra 7155H processor, its chief rival that powers a majority of high-end Ultrabooks like the Dell XPS 13, HP Spectre, and Lenovo Yoga 9i. This should give you a sense of the premium laptop market Qualcomm targeting with this new chip, just like it targets flagship mobile devices with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 phones chipset (as seen in our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review).
On paper, the Snapdragon X Plus has a 10-core CPU that can run at up to 3.5GHz speeds simultaneously. The Intel Core Ultra 7155H comparatively features 16-cores (6 performance cores, 8 efficient cores, and 2 low-power cores) with a 4.8 GHz Max Turbo frequency.
According to Qualcomm’s Geekbench multi-threaded testing, the Snapdragon X Plus delivers 37% higher CPU performance while using 54% less power than the Intel Core Ultra 7155H. Its GPU also performed 36% faster and used 50% less power while running 3DMark WildLife Extreme. Of course, benchmarking data from any manufacturer should be taken with a grain of salt until we can do some testing of our own.
Beyond performance numbers, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus promises plenty of connectivity with built-in 5G, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4 support. This chipset can also power plenty of multi-screen setups including three UHD 60Hz or two 5K 60Hz displays, or one UHD display running at 120Hz much like the PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles.
Like Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite processors, the Snapdragon X Plus is expected to ship in new PCs coming mid-2024. These two new chipsets are expected to power – and may debut within – the new Microsoft Surface Pro 10. It’ll be interesting to see how the Snapdragon X Elite in new devices will rival the chip inside the rumored iPad Pro OLED 2024 if that indeed launches with the Apple M4.
Along with the Snapdragon X Plus announcement, Qualcomm also released a new table breaking down the four SKUs of its new processors. The specs finally show the core counts and max clock speeds of all the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite processors, which look fairly competitive with Intel and AMD’s chipset. We’ll be testing Qualcomm’s new ARM-powered laptops later this year so stay tuned for more.
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.