Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon X Plus chip promises to bring enhanced AI capabilities to a wider range of ARM-powered laptops. While slightly less powerful than the flagship Snapdragon X Elite, the X Plus still delivers impressive performance, boasting a 10% advantage over the Apple M3 chip in multi-threaded CPU benchmarks. It also outperforms Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H chip by 37% in Geekbench multi-threaded performance while consuming 54% less power.
The Snapdragon X Plus features 10 high-performance cores, running at 3.4 GHz, and a 45 TOPS NPU, offering significant AI capabilities. Qualcomm claims it is the world’s fastest NPU in laptops. These features enable tasks like code generation, music generation, and live captions through applications like Visual Studio, Audacity, and OBS Studio.
Laptops equipped with the Snapdragon X Plus are expected to be available in mid-2024, alongside models featuring the flagship Snapdragon X Elite. Pricing will vary based on factors such as screen size, battery life, and other components chosen by the laptop manufacturer.
