Last year, PConline experienced the new PC platform for PC/notebook products - Snapdragon X Elite at the Snapdragon Summit, which has high performance and further elevates AI capabilities in the PC field to a whole new level, and recently, Qualcomm has launched a new member of the Snapdragon X series - Snapdragon X Plus.
To put it simply, the Snapdragon X Elite pursues more extreme performance, while the Snapdragon X Plus focuses more on the combination of performance and energy consumption. In terms of CPU, the Snapdragon X Elite uses the self-developed Qualcomm Oryon CPU, 4nm process, 64-bit architecture, has more than 12 cores, up to 3.8GHz, and a total cache of up to 42MB. The memory bandwidth is 136GB/s. Like the Snapdragon X Elite, the Snapdragon X Plus uses an advanced 4nm process technology, with 10 customized Qualcomm Oryon CPU high-performance cores, with a maximum frequency of up to 3.4GHz, a total cache of 42MB, and a memory bandwidth of 136GB/s.
In the words that are popular in the tech world, the Snapdragon X Elite and the Snapdragon X Plus are of the same origin, the former is more aggressive in terms of core count and peak frequency, and the latter has a trade-off, but the positioning is more affordable.
Next, let's take a look at how they perform. Compared to Apple's M3 processor, the Snapdragon X Elite's CPU performance is 28% ahead. The CPU performance of the Snapdragon X Plus is also 10% ahead of the M3, which can bring a great experience. It can be seen that there is a noticeable gap between the performance of the Snapdragon X Elite and the Snapdragon X Plus.
In the Geekbench multithreaded test, the Snapdragon X Plus outperformed the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, using 54% less power than the competition at the same peak performance, while the Snapdragon X Elite had a 60% lead.
In the Cinebench 2024 multithreaded test, the Snapdragon X Plus delivered 28% better CPU performance than the competition at the same power consumption compared to the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, and 39% lower power consumption than the competition when the PC reached the same peak performance. Compared to the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, the Snapdragon X Plus has a significant advantage.
In WildLife Extreme, which tests graphics performance, the Snapdragon X Plus outperforms the competition by up to 36% at the same power consumption compared to the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, and consumes only half the power of the competition when the PC reaches the same peak performance.
Not only that, but the most important thing is that the Snapdragon X Plus is the same as the Snapdragon X Elite, which is capable of achieving up to 45 TOPS of computing power by integrating the NPU. The hottest word in the PC and notebook industry this year must be "AI PC", and the powerful AI computing power of Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus is undoubtedly born for this, which can help OEMs create notebook products that balance performance, energy efficiency and AI.
In terms of the functional experience of the terminal notebook, the Snapdragon X Plus can support an external three-screen ultra-high-definition 4K 60Hz display and support HDR10. In terms of connectivity, the Snapdragon X Plus supports the same advanced connectivity technologies as the Snapdragon X Elite, including Wi-Fi 7, high-frequency concurrent multi-connectivity, and 5G connectivity that supports sub-6GHz and mmWave speeds up to 10GB/s. Elsewhere, both the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus support 18-bit dual ISP and MIPI cameras, providing advanced image and video features for a high-end user experience, as well as supporting leading Snapdragon Sound features, including Bluetooth 5.4 audio transmission and more.
Regarding the difference between the Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite, Nitin Kumar, vice president of product management at Qualcomm, said: "Snapdragon X Elite uses a customized 12-core Qualcomm Oryon CPU, and also supports dual-core enhancement technology, which has better performance. The Snapdragon X Plus is equipped with a 10-core Qualcomm Oryon CPU, which is also highly competitive in the market and can bring a better experience than other competitors. The Snapdragon X Plus extends Snapdragon's product leadership to more devices and users.
Judging from the information exposed by the third party so far, Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus will be further subdivided into multiple sub-models to enrich the product line to meet the needs of consumers and OEMs.
Commercial devices powered by the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus platforms are expected to be available in the middle of this year. Combined with the information at last year's Snapdragon Summit, the first batch of cooperation will be equipped with products from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Honor, Lenovo, Microsoft, Samsung, Xiaomi and other OEMs, we will wait and see!