Snapdragon X Laptops: Dell and Asus Lead the Charge in Battery Life and AI Integration

Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 Review: Mainstream Snapdragon X Laptop Delivers Supreme Battery Life

One of the first Copilot Plus PCs from Dell, the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 is based on a Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor and clearly illustrates the benefits of the Windows-on-Arm platform. To begin, it offers a nearly around-the-clock runtime. Seriously, it lasted for close to 24 hours in testing. It boasts the longest battery life we've seen yet in a laptop -- longer than the long-lasting M3 MacBook Air and Microsoft's own Copilot Plus PC, the Surface Laptop 7. Along with extended battery life, Microsoft and Qualcomm promise strong CPU and NPU performance with Copilot Plus PCs. The Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 delivers in each of these areas, too. Its design is fairly basic and doesn't match the sleekness of the MacBook Air or Surface Laptop 7, but the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 still supplies a rigid, all-metal chassis and crisp, 2.5K IPS display. Unless you find a specific compatibility issue with the Arm-based Snapdragon X processor and the applications you need for your job or hobbies, there's little reason to choose the Intel-based Inspiron 14 Plus 7440 over the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441. The Snapdragon model runs for almost 10 hours longer and is even a little lighter. It's a top pick among mainstream laptops. The Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 is priced squarely in the mainstream laptop category. The line starts at $950 for a configuration that includes a 10-core Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 processor, 16GB of RAM, integrated Qualcomm Adreno graphics, a 256GB SSD and a 14-inch IPS display with a 2,560x1,600-pixel resolution and touch support. Our test system adds $50 to the bill and doubles the SSD to 512GB. For $1,100, you can outfit the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 with a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 processor and a 1TB SSD. At the time of this review, the Snapdragon X Elite model was $200 off and selling for $900 at Dell. The Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 starts at £849 in the UK and AU$1,999 in Australia. Even before we get to its record-setting battery life, the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 was a strong overall performer in labs testing. It was tops on our Geekbench 6 test that measures CPU performance across a mixed workload, out-performing the two Microsoft Copilot Plus PCs we've tested in the Surface Laptop 7 and Surface Pro 11 as well as recent Intel Core Ultra laptops and Apple's latest M3 MacBook Air. The M3 Air had the best single-core performance on Cinebench 2024, but the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 was far better than the M3 Air in multicore performance thanks to it having more physical processing cores. The Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 is a 10-core chip compared with the eight-core M3 chip in the MacBook Air. (Cinebench 2024 is a newer test, which is why you won't find the previous Inspiron 14 Plus 7440 included on the chart for this test below.) As we saw with previous Snapdragon X models, the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 turned in a middling score on 3DMark Time Spy. And the reason is simple: A version of this test that can run natively on Arm has yet to be released so it must use the Prism emulator, which hurts performance. The Inspiron 14 Plus managed to edge both of Microsoft's Copilot Plus PCs but was well off the pace of Intel Core Ultra laptops that enjoy the advantage of running this test without emulation. A big part of the Copilot Plus PC platform is artificial intelligence, specifically the ability to process AI tasks locally instead of sending them to the cloud and back. In fact, the key feature a laptop needs in order to be classified as a Copilot Plus PC is a neural processing unit capable of 40 trillion operations per second. The Inspiron 14 Plus 7441's Snapdragon Plus X has a Hexagon NPU capable of 45 TOPS. On Procyon's AI Computer Vision benchmark, it outperformed not only recent Core Ultra laptops but also both of Microsoft's Copilot Plus PCs that we've tested. Apple's MacBooks have dominated in terms of laptop battery life ever since Apple introduced its own Arm-based M1 chip in 2020, but its runtime reign is over. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 was the first Windows laptop to offer battery life longer than that of an MacBook Air, and now the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 adds another three hours more than what we saw from the Surface Laptop 7. It ran for 23 hours 11 minutes. That's the longest battery life of any laptop we've reviewed to date. It's even longer than the previous runtime champ, the 16-inch MacBook Pro that lasted for just over 21 hours and has the room to house a larger battery. The Inspiron 14 Plus 7441's battery life is so long that you can leave the charger home not just for the workday or school day but for days -- plural -- at a time. With their mix of CPU and NPU performance and outstanding battery life, it's been a strong start for Copilot Plus PCs. Intel and AMD, however, will soon be out with their first mobile CPUs since the splashy arrival of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors. Intel's Lunar Lake CPUs and AMD's Strix Point Ryzen AI 300 series are expected this fall. While the internals are different from the Intel-based Inspiron 14 Plus 7440, which we reviewed earlier this year and is still available from Dell, the exterior of these two Inspiron 14 Plus laptops is nearly identical. Both models have an all-aluminum ice blue chassis, but the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 is lighter at 3.2 pounds than the 3.5-pound Inspiron 14 Plus 7440 and not by an insignificant amount. Microsoft's 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 and Apple's 13.6-inch MacBook Air have smaller displays and are lighter than the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441. The Surface Laptop 7 weighs just under 3 pounds, and the MacBook Air weighs 2.7 pounds. The Surface Laptop 7 and MacBook Air each have a sleeker, more premium look than the basic design of the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441. For example, Microsoft and Apple's units have edge-to-edge glass on the display for a polished and seamless look, while plastic bezels frame the Dell's display. And Microsoft and Apple's models each have a haptic touchpad that feels more responsive than the Dell's basic mechanical touchpad whose clicks offer too much travel near the bottom edge and feel too stiff toward the top. The dreaded "diving-board effect" is in effect here. The biggest cosmetic difference between the Intel and Qualcomm versions of the Inspiron 14 Plus is the lack of side venting on the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441. The Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 also lacks the HDMI port found on the Inspiron 14 Plus 7440 and replaces it with a second USB4 port. And this Snapdragon X model has a Windows Copilot in place of the right-Ctrl key. The Inspiron 14 Plus 7441's display has a slightly higher resolution at 2.5K versus 2.2K on the Intel model, and it's considerably brighter. It's rated for 400 nits, and I measured it to be even brighter with a peak of 471 nits with my tests conducted with a Spyder X Elite colorimeter. The older Intel model's display was rated for 300 nits and also exceeded that figure by measuring 410 nits in testing. Text looked crisp and colors appeared vivid on the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441's 2.5K IPS display, but its black levels can't match the effectively zero black levels you get with an OLED panel. To get an OLED in a Dell laptop, you need to step up from the Inspiron Plus series to the XPS series. The 1080p webcam presents a detailed, well-balanced image and supports facial recognition for easy and secure Windows Hello logins, a feature that was missing on the Intel model. It also integrates a fingerprint reader into the power button if you prefer that biometric route. The Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 supports newer wireless standards than the Intel model. It has Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Dell includes a year of premium support with either version of the Inspiron 14 Plus. The difference between premium and standard support is premium includes onsite service, which saves you from having to carry in or ship the laptop to Dell for repairs. With premium service, Dell will send a technician to you if it can't fix the problem via remote diagnostics. Unless there's a compatibility issue with the software you need and Windows-on-Arm, the Snapdragon X is clearly the choice between the Qualcomm and Intel versions of the Inspiron 14 Plus. This Qualcomm model is a little lighter, the display is a little sharper and the battery life is unparalleled. At $1,000, it's a great pick for a general-purpose laptop, and the higher-end Snapdragon X Elite configuration is an even better deal when it's on sale for $900. For just a bit more money, however, we prefer the similarly configured Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 at $1,200 for its sleeker design and superior haptic touchpad.

Asus Vivobook S 15 review: new chip in a throwback laptop | Digital Trends

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us? Asus Vivobook S 15 MSRP $1,100.00 Score Details "The Asus Vivobook S15 is the best large-display Copilot+ laptop so far in an old-school form factor." Pros Reasonably affordable Very good OLED display Surprisingly fast Excellent battery life Cons Old-school 16:9 display Keyboard isn't great Microsoft's Copilot+ PC initiative is focused first on support for AI with faster neural processing units (NPUs). Copilot+ was first introduced on Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chipsets running Windows on Arm, promising better efficiency than Intel with good performance. So far, the results have been mixed but mostly positive -- with Apple's Arm-based M3 laptops retaining their superior battery life even while being a bit slower. Contents Specs and configurationsDesignKeyboard and touchpadConnectivity and webcamPerformanceBattery lifeDisplay and audioA reasonably priced Copilot+ laptop if you want a larger displayShow 3 more items The Asus Vivobook S 15 is another Qualcomm-based Copilot+ PC, coming in an old-school 16:9 aspect ratio for a wider laptop. It's fast and gets good battery life, and it's reasonably priced. If you're OK with the trend-bucking display, then it's a reasonable alternative in a 15-inch laptop meeting the CoPilot+ specifications. Specs and configurations Asus Vivobook S 15 (Copilot+) Dimensions 13.88 inches x 8.93 inches x 0.58 - 0.63 inches Weight 3.13 pounds Processor Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 Graphics Qualcomm Adreno RAM 16GB 32GB Display 15.6-inch 16:9 3K (2880 x 1620) OLED, 120Hz Storage 512GB SSD 1TB SSD Touch No Ports 2 x USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 2 x USB4 1 x HDMI 2.1 1 x 3.5mm audio jack 1 x microSD card reader Wireless Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 Webcam 1080p with infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello facial recognition Operating system Windows 11 on Arm Battery 70 watt-hour Price $1,100+ There are currently two configurations of the Vivobook S 15, starting at $1,100 for a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 15.6-inch 3K OLED display. For $1,300 list (on sale for the same $1,100), you get a Snapdragon X Elite chipset and a 1TB SSD. That's a fair price for a well-equipped 15-inch laptop, and it's similar in price to most of the new Microsoft CoPilot+ PC laptops. It's about $100 more than the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 with the same Snapdragon X Plus chipset that doesn't have an OLED display. The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is considerably more expensive, costing at least $1,500 for a Snapdragon X Elite and a 16-inch 3K OLED display, so at least $300 more. Design The Vivobook is within the Asus midrange laptop lineup, as opposed to the more premium Zenbook lineup -- although that's not always reflected in pricing. The very good Zenbook 14 Q425, for example, can be had for well under $1,000. Sometimes, Vivobooks provide better performance at lower prices. So, it's hard to pigeonhole the Vivobook S 15. The reason I bring that up is because one thing I immediately noticed was that the Vivobook doesn't feel as premium as most Zenbooks I've reviewed. In particular, the lid is quite bendable, and there's some give in the chassis and keyboard deck. Zenbooks tend to be more rock-solid. It falls a bit behind some other Copilot+ PC laptops like the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441, the HP OmniBook X, and the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x. Aesthetically, the Vivobook S 15 follows suit with so many other recent laptops with very simple lines, single color way (in this case, all black), and little or no chrome. As with almost all laptops today, the Vivobook is attractive enough but plays it safe. The Yoga Slim 7x has more character, while the Inspiron 14 Plus is even more nondescript. To say the Vivobook S 15 looks just OK seems fair. It's reasonably thin and light, in line with most Copilot+ laptops. In fact, it's almost identical to the Inspiron 14 Plus. But it's larger, obviously, given the 15.6-inch display and larger top and bottom display bezels (the sides are quite thin). And the Vivobook S 15 looks very old-school thanks to the 16:9 display aspect ratio that makes it seem wider and more rectangular (because it is). I rarely review a laptop that's not 16:10 or 3:2, and so the Vivobook takes me back a bit. Keyboard and touchpad The keyboard has large keycaps and enough, taking up most of the available space on the wide keyboard deck. The numeric keypad, which is becoming anachronistic, is quite small and so the Vivobook leverages its wider chassis for a keyboard that's comfortable to use. My biggest problem with it is that the switches are a bit loose and felt sort of wobbly to me. They also weren't as snappy as some, making it feel a bit mushy. Every other Copilot+ laptop I've reviewed has a better keyboard. The touchpad was large enough and its buttons were reasonably quiet. I'd rate it as similar to most mechanical touchpads I've reviewed lately, but more and more laptops are moving to the vastly superior haptic touchpads. Maybe it's all about price points, but only the Dell XPS 13 9345 has a haptic version among Copilot+ laptops I've reviewed. Connectivity and webcam The Vivobook S 15 has solid connectivity, with a mix of modern and legacy ports. Given the Qualcomm chipset, we're seeing USB4 and not Intel's Thunderbolt 4, but the two protocols are similar in speed and capabilities. Then there's a microSD card reader, which some laptops have been skipping -- although I always prefer a full-size slot. Wireless connectivity is fully up-to-date with the latest Wi-Fi 7. The webcam is 1080p, which has become the new standard, and there's an infrared camera for Windows 11 Hello facial recognition. The fast NPU with up to 45 tera operations per second (TOPS) exceeds the Copilot+ specification of 40 TOPS, and right now it supports Copilot+ features like enhanced Microsoft Studio Effects, Live Captions, and Cocreator. The controversial Recall feature, which was the standout when the Copilot+ PC initiative was announced, remains on hold. Asus also includes a host of utilities that might use the NPU to some extent, but it's hard to quantify at this point. Performance According to the Asus website, Vivobook S 15 is supposed to equip either a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 or the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100. However, my review unit arrived with the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100, a newer model that's been slipstreamed into the Snapdragon X Plus lineup. That's the slowest Snapdragon X chipset, with eight cores running at 3.4GHz. That's per various online sources and not from Qualcomm's site, which doesn't yet list this model. It compares to the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 that we've reviewed, which features 10 cores running at 3.4GHz. Neither chipset has the dual-core boost of the faster Snapdragon X Elite chipsets. The X1P-42-100 also has the slowest Adreno GPU running at 1.7 teraflops (TFLOPS), behind the 3.8 or 4.6 TFLOPS of the faster chipsets. Surprisingly, the Vivobook S 15 was much faster than the Inspiron 14 Plus with the theoretically faster Snapdragon X Plus chipset. The Vivobook was almost as fast as some Snapdragon X Elite machines. So that's hard to understand. We do see, though, the impact of the slower Adreno GPU in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme benchmark. That means the Vivobook S 15 will be very fast for productivity tasks, but it will be even slower than the already-slow Snapdragon X laptops for gaming and creative tasks. The choice of chipsets is an odd one for a laptop with a large OLED display that will be attractive to anyone wanting to use the laptop for photo or video editing. One thing we can't yet determine is how well the Vivobook S 15 -- or any other Copilot+ laptop -- will perform at running AI tasks. The on-board NPU is fast as far as NPUs go, but those are generally intended for running AI on-device and more efficiently. Discrete GPUs remain much faster. The challenge, though, is in how to benchmark AI performance. Current tools aren't quite there yet, leaving us scratching our heads. Cinebench R24 (single/multi) Geekbench 6 (single/multi) 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Asus Vivobook S 15 (Snapdragon X1P-42-100 / Adreno) 108 / 724 2,417 / 11,319 3,216 Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 (Snapdragon X1P-64-100 / Adreno) 108 / 419 2,451 / 8,744 6,457 HP OmniBook X (Snapdragon X1E-78-100 /Adreno) 101 / 749 2,377 / 13,490 6,165 Dell XPS 13 9345 (Snapdragon X1E-80-100 / Adreno) 121 / 921 2,805 / 14,511 6,397 Dell XPS 13 9340 (Core Ultra 7 155H / Intel Arc) 96 / 658 2,109 / 11,134 6,667 Lenovo ThinkBook 13x Gen 4 (Core Ultra 5 125H / Intel Arc) 90 / 284 2,144 / 7,871 N/A Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon X1E-80-100 / Adreno) 105 / 826 2,388 / 13,215 5,880 Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 16 (Snapdragon X1E-84-100 / Adreno) 126 / 766 2,957 / 15,358 7,153 Apple MacBook Air 13 (M3) 141 / 601 3,102 / 12,078 8,098 Battery life I've included a bunch of comparison laptops here, because perhaps the most important aspect of the Qualcomm chipsets is that they're Arm-based and thus promise better efficiency than previous Intel and AMD chipsets. As we can see, that's largely true -- although the Intel laptops I've included here have better-than-average battery life for the Intel Meteor Lake platform. Most Intel laptops get around eight hours in web browsing and around 12 hours of video looping. The Vivobook S 15 fits the pattern, getting very good battery life in web browsing and even better in video looping. At the same time, it's also clear that as you push the Qualcomm laptops harder, their relative efficiency drops off. That's demonstrated when running the demanding Cinebench 2024 multi-core test, although the Vivobook does reasonably well. The Apple MacBook Air M3 remains the most efficient laptop, especially with more demanding tasks. Web browsing Video Cinebench R24 Asus Vivobook S 15 (Snapdragon X1P-64-100) 13 hours, 10 minutes 16 hours, 19 minutes 2 hours, 47 minutes Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 (Snapdragon X1P-64-100) 10 hours, 9 minutes 19 hours, 28 minutes 2 hours, 25 minutes Dell XPS 13 9345 (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100) 12 hours, 29 minutes 22 hours, 9 minutes 1 hour, 37 minutes Dell XPS 13 9340 (Core Ultra 7 155H) 12 hours, 14 minutes 19 hours, 35 minutes 1 hour, 27 minutes HP Omnibook X (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100) 13 hours, 37 minutes 22 hours, 4 minutes 1 hour, 52 minutes Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100) 12 hours, 5 minutes 17 hours, 3 minutes 1 hour, 52 minutes Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon X1E-80-100) 14 hours, 21 minutes 22 hours, 39 minutes N/A Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge 16 (Snapdragon X1E-84-100) 12 hours, 31 minutes 14 hours, 33 minutes N/A Asus Zenbook 14 Q425 (Core Ultra 7 155H) 12 hours, 25 minutes 18 hours, 1 minute N/A Apple MacBook Air (Apple M3) 19 hours, 38 minutes 19 hours, 39 minutes 3 hours, 27 minutes Display and audio As mentioned above, the Vivobook S 15 has a wider 16:9 display, which has pretty much given way completely to the taller 16:10. If you want to watch video without black borders, then you'll like the OLED display. Of course, most people also want to get work done, and that's why taller displays have become almost universal. I can't complain about the OLED panel's quality, though. I have yet to review a laptop with an OLED display that was anything less than awesome. The Vivobook's display didn't disappoint. It was very bright at 415 nits with the usual perfect black and an excellent contrast ratio of 28,230:1. Colors were typically wide at 100% of sRGB, 97% of AdobeRGB, and 100% of DCI-P3, and color accuracy was just a hair above excellent at a Delta-E of 1.13. You'll love this display, especially if you watch a lot of video. Audio was just OK, with two downward-firing speakers. Use headphones or an external speakers for anything more than YouTube videos. A reasonably priced Copilot+ laptop if you want a larger display Most Copilot+ laptops have been 14 inches or smaller, leaving out those looking for a larger display. There's a compromise in the 16:9 aspect ratio, so anyone who wants the best productivity experience will be disappointed. It's great for media consumption, though. Performance is surprisingly good given the slower Snapdragon X Plus chipset, while battery life is good but not nearly the best. And the price is reasonably attractive, but again, not a standout. But for now, it's the most attractive Qualcomm machine that's larger than 14 inches.