Just a day after Intel unveiled its Lunar Lake laptop CPUs at IFA 2024, Qualcomm is making a bold move with its new Snapdragon X Plus chip. This 8-core chip, aptly named Snapdragon X Plus, is designed to directly compete with Apple’s offerings by offering a lower core count but still maintaining impressive performance.
Qualcomm claims that laptops equipped with the Snapdragon X Plus, available for purchase immediately, will be among the best laptops in the market. While the Snapdragon X Plus itself is not entirely new, this latest variant introduces a key change: a reduction from 10 cores to 8. Despite this, the chip remains built on a 4nm process and boasts a maximum clock speed of 3.4GHz, reaching up to 4GHz with single-core boosts.
Crucially, the chip retains its Neural Processing Unit (NPU), making it compatible with Copilot+ laptops and delivering a powerful 45 Tera Operations Per Second (TOPS) of processing power. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon-powered laptops are known for their exceptional battery life, a trait likely to be carried over to devices with this new chip, as seen in the recently released Dell XPS 13 9345.
While the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus is expected to be less powerful than its 10-core and 12-core predecessors, Qualcomm insists that it still surpasses the competition. The company claims that the chip provides 108% better multi-core performance compared to the Intel Core Ultra 5 125U at 15 watts, and a 40% single-core advantage at 6W over the AMD Ryzen 5 8640U. Qualcomm often highlights efficiency metrics, demonstrating the chip’s performance at specific power levels. While peak performance numbers may be closer than Qualcomm suggests, as seen with new x86 laptops like the Asus Zenbook S 16, price is the key differentiator here.
Qualcomm emphasizes that this new CPU empowers Copilot+ laptops in the $700 to $900 price range. It’s important to note that Qualcomm is not explicitly stating that these new laptops will be priced within that range, but rather that this price point is achievable. Two initial laptops featuring this chip, the Asus Vivobook S 15 and ProArt PZ13, are being released at $899 and $1,099, respectively. Even if only a select few laptops reach the lower end of the $700 price range, Qualcomm gains a significant advantage over Apple. The MacBook Air, with its aging M2 chip, starts at $1,000, making Qualcomm’s offering a compelling alternative.
By providing Copilot+ laptops at a lower price point, particularly with essential features like 16GB of RAM, Qualcomm is poised to disrupt the mainstream laptop market. The company states that laptops with the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core will be available from prominent manufacturers like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung, with select devices available for purchase immediately. This move signifies Qualcomm’s strong commitment to challenging the existing laptop landscape and offering compelling choices for budget-conscious consumers.
