Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon X Plus: Affordable ARM-Powered Windows Laptops on the Horizon

Cheaper Snapdragon X Is Here! First Look at Lenovo's 8-Core X Plus Arm Laptops

If you're after laptop buying advice, I'm your man. From PC reviews to Starlink testing, I've got more than a decade of experience reviewing PCs and technology products. I got my start with PCMag but have also written for Tom's Guide and LaptopMag.com, and several other tech outlets. With a focus on personal computing (Windows, macOS, and ChromeOS), Starlink satellite internet, and generative AI productivity tools, I'm a professional tech nerd and a power user through and through. At IFA 2024, Lenovo pulled the wraps off a trio of laptops powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Plus eight-core processors. At the show, Qualcomm unveiled these new processors, which will enable Snapdragon Arm laptops to start at price points as low as $799, making them competitive in the midrange market. (The first Snapdragon X models started at $999 and up, and the first X Plus processors were 10-core.) As the demand for AI-driven capabilities in portable computing continues to rise, Lenovo is getting in front of the trend, serving up devices that cater to professionals and casual users alike. The Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7, the IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 (14-Inch), and the IdeaPad Slim 5x (14-Inch) are part of Lenovo's AI PC strategy aimed at boosting productivity and content creation across its business and home lineups. Each of these models showcases the capabilities of the Snapdragon X Plus processor, which promises exceptional performance and efficiency, running Windows 11 on Arm. (Just bear in mind Windows on Arm's software caveats.) Before we look at these new models, it is important to mention that while all three laptops will launch in various markets, not all are currently confirmed for a US release, so see the specifics for pricing and availability of each. Watch the video above for a live look at two of these new Snapdragon systems, and read on for even more details. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7: Arm Spread Wide Lenovo's ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is a modern laptop that combines advanced AI capabilities with a sleek design, appealing to today's mobile professionals. Powered by the Snapdragon X Plus eight-core processor, this machine features a dedicated NPU that drives 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS), improving productivity and creative tasks. The laptop flaunts a stunning 16-inch display with a 91.3% screen-to-body ratio, ensuring plenty of real estate for working. And given its size, the port loadout is pretty deep. With a lightweight design of just 0.63 inch thick and a substantial 84-watt-hour battery considering its size, the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is aimed at users on the go, and it even includes a dedicated numeric pad at right of the keyboard deck. It also includes enterprise-grade security features, helping sensitive data remain protected. The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 will be available in October, starting at $749. Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 (14-Inch): A Budget Arm 2-in-1 Next is the Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 (14-Inch), a versatile convertible laptop aimed to meet various productivity needs. It is also powered by the Snapdragon X Plus eight-core SoC with its integrated 45 TOPS NPU for improved AI performance, designed to help mainstream users navigate increasingly AI-saturated computing experiences. The 14-inch, 1,920-by-,200-pixel OLED touch display produces clear visuals, while the lightweight design (3.31 pounds) and thin profile (0.69 inch) make it highly portable. The device has up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, ensuring smooth multitasking and ample file space. The IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 is built to withstand everyday challenges, meeting MIL-STD-810H durability standards. The Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 will launch in October at $849. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x (14-Inch): Overseas-Only Clamshell Finally, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x (14-Inch) is crafted for users prioritizing portability and performance. Also featuring the Snapdragon X Plus eight-core processor, this laptop provides up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage, delivering fast AI-powered performance for demanding tasks. The optional 14-inch OLED display serves up excellent claimed color accuracy, tailoring it toward designers and media enthusiasts. Weighing just 3.26 pounds and measuring 0.67 inch thick, the IdeaPad Slim 5x is built for durability and ease of transport. It includes a variety of connectivity options, including USB Type-C and HDMI ports, along with support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. We did not see this model in person, just the 2-in-1 version. The IdeaPad Slim 5x will not be sold in North America but will be available in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa this September, with a starting price of €899. Thanks to Snapdragon X Plus, Lenovo is poised to sell more-affordable Arm-based ultraportable laptops than ever.

Get Ready for Cheaper ARM Windows Laptops

The first PC laptops with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips arrived a few months ago, and even though they're not perfect, they offer fantastic power efficiency and battery life. Qualcomm has now introduced a new chip for less expensive PCs: the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus. Qualcomm just revealed the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core System-on-a-Chip (SoC), a new lower-end option in the company's lineup of ARM-based chipsets. It sits below the existing 12-core Snapdragon X Elite and 10-core Snapdragon X Plus, which are used in laptops like the Surface Pro, Dell XPS 13, Surface Laptop, and Yoga Slim 7x. The new chip is expected to be used in laptops that cost between $700 and $900. There are actually two versions of the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus. The X1P-42-100 is the lowest-end option, with an 8-core Oryon CPU, a maximum multi-core clock speed of 3.2 GHz, an Adreno GPU with up to 2.1 TFLOPS. There's also the slightly-better X1P-46-100, with a maximum clock speed of 3.4 GHz, and a GPU that can do 2.1 TFLOPS. The chips are otherwise mostly identical, with the same 45 NPU TOPS performance for AI tasks, maximum memory speed of 8448 MT/s, 8 CPU cores, and 30 MB CPU cache. Qualcomm said in a press release, "An integrated GPU and support for up to three external monitors ensures exceptional graphics and immersive visual experiences. At the heart of the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core is a powerful 45 TOPS NPU of AI processing power and leading performance per watt which, paired with the platform's significant advancements in connectivity, will push productivity to new heights in ultra-portable designs with incredible battery life." Several PC makers have already announced laptops with the new chip, such as the ASUS Vivo S 15, Acer Swift Go 14, and ASUS ProArt PZ13 2-in-1 convertible tablet. There will likely be more announced over the coming months, too. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like there are any (mainstream) desktop PCs with Snapdragon chips yet -- a Snapdragon-powered mini PC could be a great low-power productivity desktop or home server. Source: Qualcomm

This might be the cheapest Snapdragon X laptop you can buy today

The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 might be the cheapest Snapdragon X PC on the market, coming in at $749. Qualcomm just announced the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor for Windows PCs, targeting a lower price than previous Snapdragon X chips. Laptop makers have wasted little time in bringing machines with this chip to market and Lenovo has just announced a few new PCs of its own. Lenovo announced the IdeaPad 5X 2-in-1, IdeaPad Slim 5X, and the ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 (seen above). All three models are powered by the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor and offer the Copilot Plus designation. So you can take advantage of AI features like Live Caption, the Image Cocreator feature, and more. The ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 is worth considering if battery life is a priority for you. Lenovo's machine has an 84Wh battery, and the company says you can expect a "multi-day" battery life. The firm didn't actually disclose any specific endurance-related figures, though. In any event, the ThinkBook offers 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. You can also choose between two 16-inch screens, namely a 2.5K IPS display (350 nits) or a 1,920 x 1,200 IPS display (300 nits). Other features worth knowing include a pair of Dolby Atmos speakers, a 1080p webcam with a shutter, a fingerprint scanner in the power button, a Kensington lock, and Wi-Fi 7. The laptop also brings a variety of I/O options, such as two 10Gbps USB-C ports, two USB-A ports (5Gbps), an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm port, and a four-in-one card reader. The Lenovo Thinkbook 16 Gen 7 will be available in the US from October for $749, making it arguably the cheapest Snapdragon X laptop on the market. So if you were intrigued by Snapdragon X PCs but were put off by the high price of the initial models, this PC might be for you. The two IdeaPads clearly share some DNA. The most notable shared feature is a 57Wh battery, but they also share a 1TB SSD, a pair of 2W speakers, a 1080p webcam with a privacy shutter, and support for Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 7. The IdeaPad 5X 2-in-1 is the more premium offering on paper, though. Expect a convertible design as the name implies, complete with a 14-inch (1,920 x 1,200, 16:10, 400 nits brightness) OLED touchscreen. By contrast, Lenovo says the Slim 5X has an "up to" 14-inch OLED non-touch display (1,920 x 1,200, 16:10, 400 nits brightness), suggesting the availability of variants with inferior screens. The convertible also has 32GB of RAM compared to 16GB on the Slim device. Lenovo's convertible also brings two USB-C ports, two full-sized USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm port, and a microSD card reader. Meanwhile, the IdeaPad Slim 5X drops one USB-C port but offers the rest of the I/O options. Expect to pay $849 for the Lenovo IdeaPad 5X 2-in-1 when it arrives in the US next month. Unfortunately, the IdeaPad Slim 5X won't be available in the US but will land in EMEA markets this month for €899(~$998).

Could we See Cheaper Laptops with Qualcomm's New Snapdragon X Chip? - Phandroid

It's IFA 2024 again, and as such we're seeing a lot of big names in the industry reveal some of their most interesting and upcoming hardware. Not one to miss out on all the action, Qualcomm recently announced its Snapdragon X Plus chip, an 8-core processor designed for Windows devices. As mentioned, the chip's 8-core structure makes it a bit different from the more powerful Snapdragon X Elite (which comes with 12 cores) and the 10-core variant of the Snapdragon X Plus. Qualcomm is confident however that the chip will be able to deliver performance, despite being designated for more lightweight and affordable machines. Qualcomm adds that the Oryon CPU inside is able to deliver 61% faster CPU performance, compared to competing products which require 179% more power. Also included is an integrated GPU and support for up to three external monitors, as well as 45 TOPS NPU of AI processing power. It's also expected that the chip will help bring down prices of entry-level laptops without sacrificing too much power. It's reported that we'll see that 8-core Snapdragon X Plus in laptops like the upcoming Asus Vivobook S 15 and the Dell Inspiron 14, both of which are expected to launch at $899. By comparison, laptops with the Snapdragon X Elite usually go for around $1,300.

Qualcomm Tips Lower-Cost Snapdragon Laptops With X Plus 8-Core Chips

I've been with PCMag since October 2017, covering a wide range of topics, including consumer electronics, cybersecurity, social media, networking, and gaming. Prior to working at PCMag, I was a foreign correspondent in Beijing for over five years, covering the tech scene in Asia. Expect price drops on laptops running Qualcomm chips. At the IFA trade show in Berlin today, Qualcomm debuted the Snapdragon X Plus 8 core, two laptop processors that expand on the company's foray into PCs. When Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon X series in June, it only released one X Plus chip, the 10-core X1P-64-100. The rest were more powerful 12-core processors in the higher-end X Elite family. The company is now targeting the lower end by releasing two 8-core processors in the X Plus series, specifically the X1P-46-100 and X1P-42-100. That could lead to more Snapdragon-powered laptops, starting at $799, when many of the products cost $999 and up. As a result, Qualcomm is marketing the new chips as the "leading CPU for mainstream PCs." Despite reducing the core count, the Snapdragon X Plus 8 core will still offer "multiday battery life," and significantly better performance and features over rival chips from Intel, AMD, and Apple, according to Qualcomm. In particular, the X1P-46-100 can hit a 4.0GHz boost clock speed, up from its normal clock speed of 3.4GHz. Users can also expect the X Plus chips and their built-in neural processing units to perform at the same level for AI workloads as the X Elite family. Qualcomm supplied some benchmarks that show the X Plus 8-core chips easily beating a competing Intel "Meteor Lake" Core Ultra processor and AMD Ryzen 8000 mobile chips in both performance and power efficiency, sometimes by double or even triple digits. That said, there's reason to be skeptical since our previous reviews of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Elite X chips show the processors often trading blows with rival Intel and AMD chips on CPU speeds. Along with the two eight-core chips, Qualcomm is also introducing a slightly upgraded 10-core processor in the X1P-66-100. It features the same clock speeds and cache as the X1P-64-100. The key difference is that Qualcomm is giving the new chip a boost clock frequency of 4GHz over a single core for those times your laptop needs a short burst of faster performance. Stay tuned for our reviews when we can put the new Qualcomm chips to the test, especially since Intel and AMD are releasing their own next-generation processors for laptops. In the meantime, consumers can expect the X Plus processors to arrive in laptops from vendors including Acer, HP, and Lenovo, among others.

Lenovo's first IdeaPad laptop with Snapdragon X Plus starts at $849

The second wave of Snapdragon-powered laptops is coming, and for a more affordable cost too. Lenovo has just launched its first IdeaPad laptop with Snapdragon X Plus at IFA this week, and for hundreds less than its previous Snapdragon model. Snapdragon X Elite was a long-awaited arrival for Windows PCs. The chip was able to deliver tons of power on the ARM architecture which led to fantastic battery life. But, out of the gate, it wasn't particularly cheap. The first wave of Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus laptops started at $999, but new, cheaper options are on the way. One of the first is the Lenovo IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1, an $849 laptop powered by Snapdragon X Plus. The IdeaPad lineup is Lenovo's more budget-focused series, but it can still deliver on fantastic hardware and performance, often with more bang for your buck. The IdeaPad 5x is a great example of that. Powered by Qualcomm's latest, cheapest Snapdragon X Plus, the machine has an 8-core CPU alongside up to 32GB of RAM, up to 1TB of storage, and with a 14-inch 1920×1200 60Hz display. The $849 configuration of IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 that will be sold in the US will include 16GB of RAM, though Lenovo hasn't directly confirmed how much storage it will have. It will be available for purchase in October. That's considerably cheaper than Lenovo's other Snapdragon laptop, the Yoga Slim 7x, which has X Elite starting at $1,199. Beyond the new IdeaPad, Lenovo is also jumping on the first AMD-powered CoPilot+ PCs with its new Lenovo Yoga 7 Pro which is powered by a Ryzen AI 9 365 processor, a chip that actually has a bit more AI processing power than Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite. That machine will also help usher in Lenovo Creator Zone, a new piece of software that can leverage all that AI power for tasks such as text-to-image, sketch-to-image, and other advanced, AI-assisted image editing using an exclusive version of Stable Diffusion 3.0. Creator Zone will be available on Lenovo Yoga devices with discrete GPUs starting on October 15. Other new laptops announced at IFA include the Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition which is coming to the US for $1,299 with Intel Core Ultra chips, as well as AMD Ryzen 7000-powered IdeaPad Slim 5 machines launching internationally in October. The proof-of-concept "Auto Twist" also has a screen that can rotate and be controlled with voice commands. Follow Ben: Twitter/X, Threads, and Instagram

Cheaper Copilot Plus PCs are coming thanks to this new Snapdragon chip

The first Windows computers running Snapdragon X chips were launched back in June, featuring either Snapdragon X Elite or Snapdragon X Plus chipsets. These devices aren't cheap, starting at ~$900 and higher. Now, Qualcomm has announced a new, less capable Snapdragon X processor aimed at slightly cheaper PCs. The Snapdragon X Plus 8-core unsurprisingly differs from the standard Snapdragon X Plus chip by having eight CPU cores, while the standard chip has a 10-core CPU. The new chip also has less cache than the vanilla Snapdragon X Plus (30MB versus 42MB) and a weaker GPU (1.7 TFLOPs versus 3.8 TFLOPs). You're still getting a processor built on a 4nm process, though. Qualcomm's new chip also brings an NPU with up to 45 TOPs of AI performance, which means computers with this chip should gain the Copilot Plus PC designation. Copilot Plus PCs enjoy features like Microsoft's controversial Recall capability, Live Captions, studio effects for the camera, and AI Super Resolution for games. Other notable features include optional 5G support, AV1 encode/decode, Bluetooth 5.4, support for three 4K/60Hz monitors at once, and Snapdragon Seamless capabilities for cross-device experiences. It's also worth noting that Snapdragon chips tend to be more efficient than most of Intel and AMD's processors, so you should expect good battery life on laptops powered by the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core. Qualcomm says Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung will all offer PCs with the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chip, with the first computers launching today. The company added that laptops powered by this processor will start at $799, so it's not a huge price drop compared to current Snapdragon PCs. But this price is still cheaper than Apple's $999 M2 MacBook Air.

Qualcomm's new 8-core Snapdragon X Plus makes these Windows laptops cheaper

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement. Qualcomm launched its first big wave of Windows laptops this summer at $999 and up -- but a new, somewhat weaker chip could soon shave off at least $100. Today, the company's announcing its first 8-core Snapdragon X Plus chips, which will feature in a new Asus Zenbook S 15 and Dell Inspiron 14 that'll retail for $899 each. While the new Qualcomm chips have all the same features as the 10-core and 12-core models, they're decidedly weaker in some ways -- especially graphics. On average, they've got less than half the GPU power for games and other graphical apps. And while they all feature the same 45 TOPS of AI performance from their NPU, they've also got 12MB less CPU cache. According to Qualcomm's own internal benchmarks for the new 8-core chips (take with grain of salt), all that means they're roughly 80 percent as capable as the company's 12-core chips in the CPU realm, and on-par with the 10-core chips for productivity. But with the 8-core, those graphics scores are predictably cut in half. Would you want to save money this way? I could definitely see it for entry-level laptop buyers -- particularly if you're actually saving $400, as the case might be for the Asus Vivobook S 15. That laptop originally cost $1,300 with the 12-core chip, but it's just $900 with the 8-core, despite featuring the same big 70 watt-hour battery and 3K 120Hz OLED screen. The only other obvious sacrifice is half the storage, as you'll get 512GB instead of 1TB. But sales might make the pricing gap smaller than it appears: The 12-core Asus Vivobook S 15 is already on sale for $1,100 or lower, and Dell is already selling the a 12-core model of its Inspiron 14 Plus for $899. Asus is also announcing a Qualcomm-based creator laptop today, the $1,099 ProArt PZ13, which also has the same 3K OLED touchscreen and 70-watt hour battery, but with a detachable keyboard and stylus support, and both Asus machines should be available today. Dell also has an Latitude 5455 with the new chip and very similar specs to the Inspiron, but no pricing.

Qualcomm has an 8-core Snapdragon X Plus to bring Windows on Arm to lower price points

Cheap vs quality thermal paste: Should you go for a generic company or stick with the popular brands? Key Takeaways The new Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chipset offers high performance at lower prices. Snapdragon X Plus 8-core outperforms competitors by 61% while using 179% less power. Qualcomm's new chipset lineup includes SKUs with boosted cores and maintained NPU performance. Qualcomm is once again expanding its Snapdragon X series of chipsets for Windows laptops, introducing the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core. This is the Snapdragon X SoC that I've been reporting on since January, but branded differently than was planned back then. The idea is to hit lower price points for high-performing Windows on Arm PCs. You might recall that Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said in a Q&A session that Snapdragon laptops would start at around $600. Now, we can see the final piece of that puzzle. "The first and best Copilot+ PCs are powered by Snapdragon X Series platforms, launching a new generation in personal computing, made possible by our groundbreaking NPU," said Cristiano Amon, President and Chief Executive Officer, Qualcomm Incorporated. "With Snapdragon X Plus 8-core, we are now bringing to more users these transformative AI experiences, and the best-in-class performance and unprecedented battery life of our power efficient custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU. We're proud to be working with leading global OEMs and retail partners to expand our portfolio and enable enterprise customers and consumers." Snapdragon X Plus looks surprisingly good There are a total of four SKUs Close Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core gets 61% better performance than its competitor, while the competing chip uses 179% more power. The interesting thing is that the competitor that Qualcomm is talking about is the Core Ultra 7 155U, rather than some lesser-tier budget CPU. It's promising 79% better CPU performance than a Core Ultra 5 125U. There are two SKUs of the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core, while there are now two SKUs of the now-rebranded Snapdragon X Plus 10-core. It's quick to rebrand what was previously just known as Snapdragon X Plus, but remember, this wasn't always going to be called Snapdragon X Plus 8-core. Aside from the core count, there are some key differences. These new SKUs have a single boost core, something that used to be exclusive to higher-end Snapdragon X Elite chips. The Snapdragon X Plus X1P-46-100 actually gets better single-core benchmark scores than the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100. Close However, the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core has a much less powerful Adreno GPU than the ones we've seen on higher-end SKUs. In other words, it has much of the CPU power, but not nearly as much of the GPU power. Qualcomm did maintain NPU performance across the stack, coming in at 45 TOPS. That means that all of these laptops are going to support Copilot+, assuming they also come with 16GB RAM and 256GB storage. Products are launching today We're so used to seeing some new Qualcomm PC chipset launch and having to wait months (or even over a year) for it to show up in products. This time, the company has nailed the Intel approach. Alongside its launch today, an array of hardware vendors are announcing laptops using the new chip. You'll see more in the coming days, but the official partner list is Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, and Samsung.

Qualcomm's new 8-core Snapdragon chip is aimed at cheaper Arm Windows PCs

Windows-on-Arm has gotten better, but we're still waiting for good budget PCs. Windows-on-Arm is finally just about good enough to serve as your main PC, thanks to a combination of long-awaited Snapdragon X-series silicon from Qualcomm, Arm-specific improvements in the Windows 11 24H2 update, and third-party software developers that are slowly but surely putting out Arm-native versions of their most popular apps. So far, those Snapdragon X chips have been confined mostly to $1,000-and-up premium PCs like the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop. But Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has said that he wants to get better hardware into midrange laptops in the $700 range, and today the company took a concrete step toward making that happen: a new version of the Snapdragon X with 8 CPU cores instead of 10, but the same Oryon CPU architecture (a neural processing unit [NPU] that still meets Microsoft's requirements for Copilot+ PCs) and the same Snapdragon X Plus branding as the faster 10-core versions. There are two separate versions of the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus. The X1P-46-100 version allows its CPU to boost up to 4.0 GHz for single-core tasks and has a GPU capable of 2.1 TFLOPS of performance (compared to 3.8 for the 10-core X plus, and 4.6 for the fastest Snapdragon X Elite variants). The X1P-42-100 version only boosts up to 3.4 GHz in single-core mode and has a 1.7 TFLOPS GPU. All of Qualcomm's NPUs are the same, offering 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Further Reading The 8-core version of the Snapdragon X Plus hasn't exactly been a secret; benchmarks of the slower X1P-42-100 variant have already leaked, suggesting that its CPU performance mostly holds up -- 5 percent slower than the 10-core X Plus in single-core tests, 20 percent slower in multi-core tests, but as much as 50 percent slower in games and GPU benchmarks. None of the Snapdragon X chips are capable of high-end gaming, but it looks like these low-end X Plus chips will be poorly suited to anything other than basic 3D rendering. As for the NPU performance and the Copilot+ label, Microsoft says these PCs will be capable of running more generative AI and machine learning tasks locally, rather than using cloud services. There aren't many Copilot+ features available yet, but there are reasons to like the Copilot+ label even if you hate generative AI and intend to turn off every AI feature you can find a toggle for: Copilot+ PCs also need to have at least 16GB of RAM and 256GB of solid-state storage, making them that much better for web browsing and general-purpose computing. It's worth noting that this 8-core X Plus looks like yet another cut-down version of the flagship Snapdragon X Elite silicon; we have yet to see anything from Qualcomm that has been purpose-built to serve the low-end PC market. Historically, Qualcomm has used two separate silicon tiers for its Windows PCs -- the high-end Snapdragon 8cx series and the low-end Snapdragon 7c series -- and we haven't seen what an Oryon-based successor to the 7c might look like. Qualcomm probably doesn't want to offer cheap alternatives to its flagships too early -- why risk cannibalizing sales of higher-end PCs? But if Qualcomm actually intends to ship the volume of Arm PCs it claims it wants to (Amon has said he thinks getting Qualcomm SoCs in 60 percent of all PC shipments is a realistic possibility), it will need to ship more products that serve the low-cost, high-volume PC market. This new 8-core Snapdragon X Plus is a decent fit for a middle-of-the-road PC, but it seems unlikely to hit $500-and-under laptops any time soon.

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus now comes in 8-core variants

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips launched in laptops earlier this summer, showing up primarily in high-end machines with premium price tags. At IFA in Berlin, the company is introducing a lower-end version of the Snapdragon X Plus with 8 CPU cores instead of the usual 10-cores on that chip. The company suggests that will bring prices down, with laptops featuring the 8-core version starting at $799. Crucially for Qualcomm's marketing of the chips, it maintains the same 45 NPU tops as the 10-core X Plus and the higher-end X Elite models, allowing the company to claim similar AI performance. There are two new chips in the 8-core range: the X1P-42-100 and XP-46-100. Both have 8-cores, but they have several differences. The X1P-42-100 goes up to 3.4 GHz with single-core boost and 3.2 GHz multi-core and a GPU going up to 1.7 TFLOPS, while the XP-46-100 goes up to 4.0 GHz with single-core boost and 3.4 GHz multi-core with a 2.1-TFLOPS GPU. (Unlike the initial 10-core X1P-64-100, these do have single-core boost). That being said, there are a number of other differences between the 8-core and 10-core versions of the Snapdragon X Plus beyond how many CPU cores there are. The 8-core versions have less cache (30MB, versus 42MB on the 10-core) and the weakest chip has slower single and multi-core performance. The GPU is also slower, going up to 2.1 TFLOPS on the stronger 8-core GPU compared to 3.8 TFLOPs on the 10-core. That will be particularly interesting to see in action, because GPUs are popular for AI applications, some of which don't use the NPU. The other big change is to the image signal processor. The newer chips support up to a 36MP single camera, down from 64MP on the 10-core X Plus (which could also support dual 36MP cameras). It's surprising that Qualcomm is still calling these chips X Plus. The company is using a different badge from the 10-core version, clearly realizing it needs to be differentiated in the marketplace. But every X Elite model has 12-cores, so until now, it seemed that the number of CPU cores is the big differentiator between levels of chip. (And frankly, the usage of "Plus" suggests that there's something below it.). It's unclear if a black Snapdragon flame instead of a silver one will really help people understand what they're buying. Laptops with the 8-core X Plus are starting to launch today, with options from HP, Acer, Asus, Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung being announced around IFA, according to Qualcomm's slides. These will be Copilot+ PCs, with exclusive features like Cocreate and live translation -- at least until AMD's Ryzen AI 300 chips and Intel's Lunar Lake processors finally get the nod. Qualcomm claims in its slides that it delivers 79% faster peak single-threaded CPU performance than the Intel Core Ultra 5 125U at 216% less power. That Meteor L ake was just replaced yesterday and the Lunar Lake successors will launch officially this month. Time for some new testing, it seems! The company also claims up to 40% more performance in single-threaded performance than the Ryzen 5 8640U at 150% less power. In multi-threaded performance, Qualcomm claims the same X1P-46-100 offers 35% faster multi-threaded performance in Geekbench 6.2 than the Ryzen 5 with 116% less power. The company also claimed faster single-core performance than the Core Ultra 7 155U (61% faster at 179% less power) and the Ryzen 7 8840U (22% faster with 121% less power). In multi-core, that was 41% faster performance at 124% less power for the Intel chip and 7% faster performance at 39% less power against AMD. Qualcomm is also promising up to twice as much battery life against the Core Ultra 7 155U, though that's specifically on Teams Video Calls (and using the weaker X1P-42-100). The smallest difference, in Office 365 apps, was a claimed 36%. This is another area where re-testing will be necessary when Intel's Lunar Lake chips release this month. We've embedded Qualcomm's slides above. Qualcomm is making much less noise about a new 10-core Snapdragon X Plus it's listing in new comparison tables. The X1P-66-100 has 3.4 GHz like the existing 10-core chip, but also adds single-core boost up to 4.0 GHz. It otherwise has the same cache and same graphics capabilities. A Qualcomm representative told Tom's Hardware that this new chip would start showing up in the first half of 2025, which sounds to me like we'll see it more at CES. This configuration is listed in a product briefing describing the new 8-core chips (and is in the table above), but isn't mentioned in Qualcomm's press releases or other documents regarding the new chip. It sounds like Qualcomm is just teasing it, for now.