Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon X To Power More Affordable Copilot+ PCs
Make no mistake, Qualcomm has big aspirations of taking x86's lunch money in the consumer PC space, and while that's been true for a long while now, the effort really began in earnest with its Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus platforms. They're the strongest Arm-based competitors to x86's dominance to date. Expanding on that effort, Qualcomm at CES 2025 has introduced a third addition simply called Snapdragon X (no additional moniker) that takes aim at more mainstream machines.
To attach an actual monetary figure to that claim, Qualcomm says it is looking to "redefine the PC category for mainstream devices at [the] $600" range with Snapdragon X.
"The introduction of Snapdragon X further reinforces a new wave of PC innovation and enables the latest
technologies to be brought to a broader range of Copilot+ PCs," said Pavan Davuluri, Corporate Vice
President, Windows + Devices for Microsoft. "With Snapdragon X, customers will continue to experience
leading performance and battery life, access more innovative AI experiences, and will have more form
factors to choose from when deciding what Copilot+ PC best fits their needs."
Qualcomm's timing is certainly strategic. The company had a head start over AMD and Intel with official Copilot+ PC branding with its Snapdragon X Elite and Plus lineups, but that exclusivity period is over. Now that both major x86 chip designers have entered the Copilot+ ring, introducing a cheaper Snapdragon X line looks like a smart move from our vantage point.
There's just one Snapdragon X processor at the moment (X1-26-100). It features an 8-core Oryon CPU with a 3GHz max multi-core clock speed and 30MB of total cache. It also features an Adreno GPU serving up 1.7 TFLOPS of graphics muscle, and a hexagon NPU with 45 TOPS.
According to Qualcomm, Snapdragon X delivers 163% faster single-core and 157% faster multi-core performance at ISO-powewr versus the competition (which Qualcomm states is an Intel Core 5 120U), claims which are rooted in Geekbench. Qualcomm also claims that the Core 5 120U requires 168% more power at ISO-performance for single-core workloads and 240% for mutlicore (which, again, are figures based on Geekbench).
What about graphics? According to Qualcomm, Snapdragon X has a significant performance-per-watt advantage versus the Core 5 120U, with its Arm-based chip purportedly delivering up to 319% faster performance in 3DMark Wildlife Extreme.
Qualcomm is also claiming big advantages in AI workloads by way of Snapdragon X's NPU, with performance comparisons to a couple of Intel chips and also a Ryzen 5 7540U. Notably, both the Core 5 120U and Ryzen 5 7540U lack a dedicated NPU, though Qualcomm also includes Intel's Core Ultra 7 155U, which does have an NPU.
One potentially big advantage that Arm has over x86 is with battery life, and according to Qualcomm, its Snapdragon X can enable devices that last up to twice as long as the Core 5 120U. You can see Qualcomm's own battery life benchmarks in the slide above, which show that the biggest gains can be had in streaming Netflix, running Office 365 apps, and video calls on Teams.
It's not just laptops that Qualcomm is going after. As part of its market expansion with a cheaper Snapdragon solution, Qualcomm is also making a move into desktops, starting with the first mini desktop PC powered by Snapdragon X series silicon. It hasn't revealed any new details yet, but tease a related announcement for tomorrow.
Speaking of more broadly, Qualcomm says Snapdragon X takes aim at "students, freelance workers, and budget-conscious consumers," with major OEM partners on board such as Acer ,ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo.
