Snapdragon X Plus will bring ARM to ‘even more’ Windows laptops, still said to beat Apple M3

Ben Schoon | Apr 24 2024 - 6:00 am PT

While it’s still yet to debut, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is looking like a big deal for ARM-powered Windows machines and, now, it’s getting a more affordable cousin in the Snapdragon X Plus.

Announced today, Snapdragon X Plus is based on the same Oryon CPU as Snapdragon X Elite, just with a bit less power. The chip has 10 cores to the Elite’s 12, and is also clocked down from the Elite’s 3.8GHz to 3.4GHz.

In a multi-threaded CPU benchmark, Snapdragon X Plus fell about 2,000 points lower than the Snapdragon X Elite, but still managed to outdo Apple’s M3 chip by about 10%. It’s also still considerably more power efficient compared to traditional x86 chips, using approximately 54% less power at peak performance compared to Intel Core Ultra 7155H.

Qualcomm explains:

Snapdragon X Plus features the state-of-the-art Qualcomm Oryon CPU, a custom-integrated processor that delivers up to 37% faster CPU performance compared to competitors, while consuming up to 54% less power. This remarkable advancement in CPU performance sets a new standard in mobile computing, enabling users to accomplish more with greater efficiency.

Snapdragon X Plus also matches the Elite on NPU performance, which should be a big boost as “AI PCs” continue to be a big focus on Windows.

While Qualcomm doesn’t say it outright, the company says Plus will enable this technology to be in the hands of “even more users,” hinting that this chip will be priced more aggressively.

No specific laptops have been announced with Snapdragon X Plus – or Elite, for that matter – but Qualcomm says to expect more on that in “mid-2024.” Microsoft is expected to be among the first to adopt the new Snapdragon chips with new Surface hardware being announced soon.