The Snapdragon X Elite CPU delivers exactly what Qualcomm promised, at least according to an early review of the new Surface Laptop, which has the chip as its engine.
Tom’s hardware noted the review of Microsoft’s new notebook in which Ryan Shrout (an ex-Intel graphics executive) put the new Snapdragon X Elite to the test and came away quite impressed.
In the first 24 hours since the launch of the new Surface device with the ) I have answered many questions about the competition with the Mac and the…May 21, 2024
On X (formerly Twitter), Shrout noted that the Snapdragon and Microsoft have been very vocal about their wins here.
Shrout compared the Surface Laptop with the Snapdragon
The performance levels of the Snapdragon ).
Shrout also observed impressive thermals, with the Snapdragon X Elite managing its heat well, albeit not as well as Apple’s M3. And of course, Shrout witnessed excellent AI acceleration – although we fully expected that, as well as seriously good battery life, which was also demonstrated.
Indeed, the Snapdragon X Elite won two battery life competitions, beating all competitors in local video playback. The MacBook Air with M3 came closest to the Surface Laptop here, but still showed a battery life of 16%.
In the other tests, the Snapdragon
When tested with PugetBench Lightroom Classic, the Snapdragon did indeed match Intel’s Core Ultra 7, which is seriously impressive – although it was slightly behind the Intel chip (and Apple M3) in Blender.
Analysis: A time for cautious optimism
Overall, this represents a compelling account of the Snapdragon Mind you, the Snapdragon doesn’t win every battle by any means, and Intel’s Meteor Lake CPU and the Apple M3 more than hold their own against the ARM-based SoC in some tests.
Obviously, we should keep in mind that this is an early review published with Microsoft’s blessing, and we’ll need to see further and deeper evaluations of the Surface Laptop and Snapdragon X Elite before jumping to conclusions.
We’ll have our own thoughts ready for you soon enough in terms of reviews, but Shrout seems convinced (spices are sprinkled on top, as mentioned) that this could finally be Windows on ARM’s big moment.
That said, we shouldn’t forget that there are other major mobile CPUs coming to market later this year, such as Intel’s Lunar Lake, or AMD’s Strix Point (or even Apple’s M4). In short, it won’t be long before the Snapdragon X Elite has significantly more powerful competition.