Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “Snapdragon X Plus is HERE | Windows on Arm gets HUGE upgrade!”.
Today Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X chipset. This is not a processor for smartphones. In fact, this is for laptops running the arm version of Windows, but wait doesn’t windows on arm suck. So before we talk too much about Windows on arm, let’s talk about what Qualcomm actually launched today and in order to do that, we have to start with what Qualcomm launched back in October of 2023, which is called the Snapdragon X Elite processor, Qualcomm claimed.
This was the fastest processor it had ever made for laptops, it’s a 12 core processor with an onboard npu, meaning that it can do AI calculations on device. It doesn’t need to go to the cloud for certain tasks. Qualcomm made a lot of claims about the Snapdragon xelite chipset, compared against Apple’s M3 chipset, which is what powers most modern Apple laptops.
Apple laptops are renowned for being incredibly powerful fanless and having some exceptional battery life. So Qualcomm is basically saying the Snapdragon X Elite is just as good, if not better than the M3, which means that Windows laptops could then be just as good as Apple laptops. Unfortunately, we haven’t actually seen the Snapdragon xile lead in any commercial laptops, so we can’t test out qualcomm’s claims for ourself, so we just got to kind of take their word for it. Now. Today, Qualcomm is announcing the Snapdragon X, which is a 10 core version of the Snapdragon X Elite. In other other words, it’s going to be slightly less powerful, but have pretty much all the same Hardware.
If you need to think about this in Intel terms. Think of the Snapdragon X Elite being a core Ultra 9 and the Snapdragon X being a core Ultra 5. Keeping that analy in mind the Snapdragon X will be a lot cheaper for oems to buy when compared to the Snapdragon X Elite, which means that we should see the X in less expensive laptops. Once again, we haven’t seen a commercial laptop with the X Elite in it, so I can’t really say how much those laptops are going to cost, but they’re going to be premium, so we can probably expect them to be in $ 11,000 plus devices.
Therefore, the Snapdragon X announced today might end up in laptops that are under $ 11,000. The big question is, though, can this Hardware save Windows on arm? Because, if you’ll remember Hardware isn’t the biggest problem with Windows on arm laptops? If you don’t follow the laptop industry closely, you might not know what I’m talking about when I say windows on arm. So let’s explain that real, quick, most laptops these days that are running Windows come with x86 architecture. This would be pretty much any Windows laptop.
You can buy today that has an Intel processor or an AMD. Processor. X86 architecture has been around for a long long time and it’s able to run pretty much every program. That’S ever been made for a computer ever the version of Windows that you’re used to is designed to work on x86 architecture, meaning once with Intel or AMD processors. The windows version that’s based on arm is completely different from x86, and that can only run on Arm based processors. So you have two versions of Windows. You have Windows on arm and x86 Windows, which is just the normal windows in order for Windows on arm to work, it has to be custom designed for that arm. Architecture, if you’ll remember Apple, released laptops with the M1 M2 and M3 processors, which are also all Arm based processors prior to that apple, had Intel processors, which once again, are x86. So what Apple did with the M1 series is say, we’re done with x86. Now everything is moving to arm and since apple is so big and such a prevalent part of major creative Industries, including video editing and photo editing Apple, was able to do. This apple basically said to all the companies out there we’re going arm. If you want to come with us, you better change too, and that made it so that all sorts of companies started releasing programs designed for arm and that included Photoshop and Premiere Pro and all the major things that people use for Creative Industries.
Unfortunately, Microsoft hasn’t done. The same thing, it is still heavily invested in the x86 world because it kind of has to be Windows, runs on so many systems all around the world, and a lot of those systems depend on Legacy software. That is only designed for x86 architecture. In order for those x86 programs to work on arm, they have to be emulated and windows hasn’t done, a really good job of making that work as seamlessly as Apple has done now, you can argue that x86 emulation on Windows and x86 emulation on Apple are pretty Much the same, but Apple makes it a lot easier.
It’S a lot more seamless and it’s just a lot smoother of an experience. All of this information basically means that if you buy a Windows on arm laptop today, you’re not going to get apple M3 level quality you’re going to get Hardware, that’s pretty good and you’re going to get software! That’S okay as well, but you’re going to be lacking. If you want to install a lot of older programs that are based on x86 and a lot of arm programs that were specifically designed for Apple’s Mac OS, don’t automatically get ported to the arm version of Windows, because companies are just like why there aren’t that many Arm Windows, laptops and the ones that do exist aren’t that great, so we’re not going to bother spending the time and resources making Arm based versions for window Windows laptops so now Qualcomm is announcing the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X chipsets. So what Qualcomm has done here is basically drawn A Line in the Sand with the Snapdragon X, Elite and X.
Chipsets Qualcomm is saying: hey, Microsoft, here’s everything you need to make Windows on arm better, here’s a powerful chipset with an onboard npu that can do all sorts of cool AI tricks and even run games without a dedicated GPU. Now all Microsoft has to to do is make Windows on arm better, but that’s the real problem. Microsoft has made windows on arm better over the years, but it’s still not good enough. Using a Windows on arm laptop today is kind of like using a Chromebook.
Yes, you can get all your basic tasks done. You can do your web browsing. You can check your email, you can do some word processing even watch some videos and even do some video editing if you have a powerful enough machine, but when it comes down to doing really intensive tasks and when it comes to gaming, Things Are aren’t going to Go well: the Snapdragon, X, Elite and Snapdragon X aim to solve these problems and make it so that pretty much anybody could make a Windows on arm laptop that’ll be able to be a powerful Workhorse both for productivity and even for gaming. The Snapdragon X Elite, for example, can play balers Gate 3 at a solid 30 frames per second and that’s without a dedicated GPU.
This is something that a Windows on- arm laptop just couldn’t do several years ago. So Qualcomm is making progress here. But the big question is: is Microsoft going to respond to that progress and make Windows on arm better? To give you just one example of how far behind windows on arm is this year, for the first time ever, Google released a version of Chrome built specifically for Windows. Onr this year, Chrome, the world’s biggest browser just released a Windows on ARM version of the app before that you had to emulate Chrome in an x86 Suite, which is just crazy, easy to think about.
That’S how far behind windows on arm is so what’s really going to have to change, to make these laptops successful is Microsoft is going to have to respond to qualcomm’s investment? Microsoft is going to have to say yes. Finally, Qualcomm you have made a super powerful processor. That’Ll really do well.
Let’S make Windows software work as best as it possibly can on. That is Microsoft going to do that, I don’t know, but Qualcomm is sending a very powerful message here. Qualcomm wants Microsoft to make Windows on arm successful. The reason for that is is because, if Microsoft makes windows on arm successful, then Qualcomm sells a lot of Qualcomm chips. So you can see why Qualcomm would want Microsoft to do well when it comes to Windows on arm.
Essentially, Apple has proven that arm-based architecture Works. Mac OS works really well, yes, a lot of programs for Mac OS are still designed for x86 architecture, but the M series chip sets can emulate them. Well enough.
So really Qualcomm wants Windows to be able to better compete with apple and that’s great, but Microsoft has to get on board with that and that’s the true test of whether or not the Snapdragon exit leite and today’s X is going to do well. Once again, though, I can’t emphasize this enough: Qualcomm has not released a consumer level version of either a Snapdragon X, Elite, computer or an X computer. They they’ve shown us demos and that’s where I saw balers gate playing at 30 frames per second, but that’s just not a real test.
I need an actual laptop, that’s designed for consumers that you can buy at a retail store to test that out to find out just how good these new processors are, and just how good windows and arm can be for day-to-day tasks. We’Ll find out more when laptops with these chips, actually land, hopefully we’ll see them in May around the computex event and if not, then we’ll see them soon after. But I want to know what you think about this: are you in the market for a Windows on arm laptop? Do you want something, that’s light and powerful and has terrific battery life, but you can also game on. I feel like most people watching this are but jump into the comments and let us know what’s going on in the meantime, I will see you guys in the next article .