I am at the 10th Snapdragon annual summit in Maui, in Hawaii (thank you special to Qualcomm for driving me halfway around the world), and this is this time of year: the new laptop tokens have officially arrived.
With the first generation of Snapdragon X Elite and more chips already in consumers’ hands after a launch in 2024 at Computex, it was natural that the manufacturer of Qualcomm fleas would like to go for another round; While the original X elite chips were good, the competition to be the company supplying the best laptops was fierce. But of course, we have now confirmed that second generation Snapdragon laptops are indeed incoming.
It’s a little different from the last time: while the first generation Snapdragon X range has been titled by the elite chip, the star of the show here is the new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, which seems to be a huge step compared to first generation processors. There is also an ordinary X2 Elite, and although the Qualcomm team does not fall for my cunning tips (Read: requests for polished comments), it is reasonable to expect a more economical budgetary Snapdragon X2 in the coming months.
Natural progression
In his introductory speech the day before the announcement of the great revelation, the CEO of Qualcomm Cristiano Amon teased the revelation, noting that “making a large chip means nothing if we cannot do so next year” – probably involving that Qualcomm will aim for an annual rate with generations of Snapdragon processors, similar to the usual version programs of key competitors Intel and AMD.
The new chips are described by Qualcomm as “the fastest and most effective processors for Windows PCS” (note that in this context, “PCs” include laptops as well as compact desktops), and the performance that I have seen so far up to this assertion.
I cannot yet talk about specific reference numbers (these are embargo before the 29th, so look at this space!), But what I can share is that the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is designed for high-end high-end ultrabooks, with up to 18 cores and 53 MB of cache memory, offering up to 75% CPU performance faster Power. This is the first processor compatible with the arm to reach a 5.0 GHz clock speed, an impressive step.
There is also a new surreo GPU on a chip which provides a huge increase of 2.3x performance per Watt compared to the integrated GPU of previous generation, which means that the game should be an option on these devices – although Qualcomm maintains that their target audience is professionals, not players.
AI for the guy snapdragon
AI is not surprisingly a key goal here. Amon said in his opening speech that “we are the company that was going to bring AI everywhere”, citing the improvement of the local capacities of AI in not only laptops but also phones, mobile devices and even cars.
To this end, the Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme will present a new neuronal treatment unit (NPU), capable of 80 billions of operations per second (high). This almost doubles the performances of the existing snapdragon fleas; The integrated NPU of the current generation of generation X offers up to 45 highs, while Apple’s most recent M4 chip only manages a relatively low 38.
Improvements in battery life were also something that Qualcomm wanted to boast. The standard X2 Elite chip would need up to 43% less power than generation X Pride, a chip already very economical in power, which means that we could constitute a lifespan for laptop for laptop extending well in a use of several days between the charges.
Perhaps more interesting, generation X2 will start a new feature called Snapdragon Guardian Technology. This new system uses both Wi -Fi and 5G connectivity to allow users to manage, locate, lock or erase their device remotely – a potentially precious functionality for professional users who manage sensitive documents on their laptops.
In any case, the future promises to be very good for Qualcomm – I will be here at the top all week, and I have already seen exciting things, so expect more coverage on my part in the coming days. I think Intel should be worried …
