There’s a revolution in the making. Those of us who’ve been following along know that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chips are rumored to be hitting the market soon. And they’re about to drop a bombshell on the world of Windows laptops.
That might sound like a stretch at first. But Qualcomm has been driving around a demo unit of the chip for much of this year, and the performance so far looks pretty staggering. Not only is Qualcomm claiming that its new chips will rival Intel’s latest Core Ultra chips, it’s even putting them up against Apple’s M3. That’s true. There’s even a significant jump in AI performance via the chip’s neural processing unit (NPU).
If the Snapdragon X Elite chips really are as good as Qualcomm claims, this could be as big a leap forward as the M1 was for the MacBook Air.
That means we could soon have Windows laptops that are just as efficient, powerful, and durable as Apple’s MacBooks. That’s a big deal. Right now, even the best Windows alternatives struggle to keep up with something like the M3 MacBook Air. Not only does its raw performance fall short of the M3, it’s also nowhere near as efficient. It also produces far more heat and drains the battery like crazy. And let’s be clear: this is no small gap to fill.
Currently, the MacBook Air is more than twice as durable as its Windows competitors, despite being so closely matched in price. The MacBook Air is also completely fanless. My point? If these upcoming Snapdragon Elite X-chip laptops are as good as we’ve heard, they’ll represent a significant upgrade over the current crop of even the best Windows laptops.
Yoga Slim 7 14(.5) 2024 Snapdragon Edition photo.twitter.com/k29LupeWk6
– WalkingCat (@_h0x0d_) April 17, 2024
It looks like there will be a lot of options, too. Every major laptop manufacturer has signed on, including Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, Microsoft, and more. Rumors say the new Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 will exclusively use the new chips, and some leaks have already revealed some of the new designs. There’s no word yet on when these other devices will roll out, but we do know that the Surface devices will likely be announced on May 20, the day before Microsoft Build.
Of course, I’m not saying that this first wave of Snapdragon X Elite laptops will necessarily be worth buying over their Intel counterparts. There’s still a lot we don’t know, including whether they’ll deliver on the performance and battery life fronts. Windows, for example, has a long, storied history of not properly supporting ARM chips, and while things have improved, we’ll have to wait and see how committed Microsoft and Windows developers really are.
There’s also the matter of price. We don’t know how laptop makers are going to price these new laptops, especially if they’re marketed as true MacBook competitors.
I do know, though, that if you’re in the market for a premium Windows laptop right now, it’s worth waiting to see how it turns out. We may be on the cusp of a major turning point for Windows laptops — one that could quickly make you regret buying one.
