Snapdragon X Elite PCs Better Be Successful | Top Vip News

Key takeaways

• Snapdragon PCs have had potential, but past hardware and software issues have prevented them from truly competing with Intel products.
• The PC industry is hesitant to move away from Intel CPUs, despite competition from AMD and now Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chipset.
• Apple’s success with custom Arm processors has put pressure on Intel, leaving consumers hopeful about the Snapdragon X Elite’s promises of better battery life and performance.

I’ve been waiting for the Snapdragon X Elite for seven years. Ever since Qualcomm and Microsoft announced that Windows runs on Arm processors with emulated x86 apps in 2016, I’ve been excited. Finally, we were going to have real competition for Intel and x86.

Unfortunately, this never really happened. We have seen four generations of premium chipsets from the company, always with great promises. With the Snapdragon

The only thing I still have in mind is the hardware.

So far, Snapdragon PCs have been good

The hardware is good, but not great.

With each generation of Snapdragon computing platforms, there are usually a handful of laptops from a handful of companies showcasing the chips. For the original generation, it was HP, Lenovo and Asus, with the Envy x2, Miix 630 and NovaGo, respectively. They were priced similarly to premium tablets and convertibles, but typically came with 4GB of RAM (Asus used 6GB), little storage, and poor performance.

The Snapdragon 850 generation was more interesting, with Samsung entering the scene with the Galaxy Book 2 (totally different from the Galaxy Book 2 that was released a couple of years ago). It was a tablet with a Super AMOLED screen. Lenovo launched another mid-range with the Yoga C630 WOS, and Huawei even had a China-exclusive MateBook E.

Things got more interesting with the Snapdragon 8cx, which was a big release from Qualcomm that promised performance on par with an Intel Core i5. Microsoft finally legitimized it with the Surface Pro X and Lenovo introduced the first 5G laptop with mmWave support.

I’m talking about laptops, because we all know the chipsets could have been better and there have been no shortage of software issues. These were all good, but if you were buying premium you probably wouldn’t want one.

That’s been the problem all along. Qualcomm has promised us premium products, but if you want the best from Lenovo, you’re buying a ThinkPad X1 Carbon, not a ThinkPad X13s.

We saw a version of the Surface Pro 9 that had an SQ3 processor (a slightly modified Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3), but it had some unfortunate compromises. Since Microsoft abandoned the Surface Pro X and merged it with the main Pro line, it was practically built for the lowest common denominator, which was Intel.

The PC industry and its addiction to Intel

It’s hard to get away from the headline

On the consumer side, HP has the Specter x360, Dell has the XPS, and Lenovo has the Yoga 9i as its flagships. For business, HP has the Dragonfly and Elite 1000, Dell has the Latitude 9000, and Lenovo has the ThinkPad X1. All of these products have one thing in common: they all have Intel CPUs inside.

It’s fair to say that HP hasn’t made a Snapdragon-powered Specter x360 because Qualcomm hasn’t made a good enough product, but AMD has had some solid Ryzen entries over the years. However, AMD is still trying to move away from being a variant of an Intel product. There are many ThinkPads and EliteBooks that have Intel and AMD options, but very few (I look at the ThinkPad Z series) are designed primarily for AMD.

Remember the old saying: “No one was ever fired for buying IBM.” Installing an Intel CPU in your flagship laptop is a safe bet, no matter how good AMD Ryzen is.

In fact, the situation is reversed in the mobile market, where Qualcomm is predominant. MediaTek made a great product with its Dimensity 9300 this year, but if you thought Samsung would include it in the Galaxy S24 or upcoming Galaxy foldables, you’re crazy.

Apple’s disruption

Does Apple Silicon change Intel’s brand recognition?

Since Apple switched to its own custom-designed Arm processors, Intel has had a bad look. These new Macs combine incredible battery life with powerful performance, all in a thin and light chassis in a way the world has never seen. Intel could absolutely match the performance, but it couldn’t put together a total package like that.

Although things have changed a lot in recent years. Intel created a new hybrid architecture, mimicking the way Arm chips have large and small cores, and has focused on AI performance, better graphics and efficiency.

But still, with Apple essentially embarrassing Intel, it really seems like people are just tired of those old weaknesses they’ve historically had. Have you ever had a fully charged laptop in your bag that was dead when you opened it? That was Intel power management at work in the Skylake era. Have you ever woken your PC from hibernation, waited a few seconds for it to wake up, and pressed the power button again, only to have the screen brighten briefly before you pressed the button? Well, we’ve all been there.

Qualcomm promises to bring the benefits of Apple Silicon to Windows. In fact, it is not just a promise, but it seems that it is finally something real. The Snapdragon X Elite promises better battery life than Intel, better AI performance than Core Ultra, and better overall performance.

If the Snapdragon

We need great hardware

And not just alternatives to Intel PCs

Microsoft just announced the Surface Pro 10 for business and Surface Laptop 6 for business, and as you’d expect, they have Intel Core Ultra processors under the hood. The Surface Pro has used Intel since the first one launched in 2013, along with the Pro X and a 5G variant of the Pro 9. That was the selling point. In 2012, you could get the Arm-flavored Surface RT, which had a lot of restrictions, or pay more for an Intel-powered Surface Pro, which did everything your laptop could do.

On May 20, Microsoft will launch those devices for consumers and they will be equipped with the Snapdragon X Elite chipset. Additionally, it’s rumored that there won’t even be a consumer Intel model, a big win for Qualcomm. They will also have different features, such as OLED screens, so it is not just the same chassis but with a Qualcomm chipset as we saw with the Surface Pro 9.

I also heard that, for the first time, Microsoft will share the stage at the Surface launch. At least one other OEM will be there to show off the Snapdragon . in the same period.

But my question is, apart from the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6, what are the OEMs going to offer us? For Windows on Arm and Snapdragon X Elite to succeed, you need Dell XPS, not Inspiron. You need HP Spectre, not Envy.

Most importantly, you need all the major OEMs on board to make premium products, which, to be fair, is what I hear is the case. Microsoft, Dell, Lenovo and presumably more have products ready to go. They better be great, which means they should include the features you’d expect from a flagship Intel laptop.