We benchmarked the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptop chip

After years of development, Qualcomm’s first custom CPU architecture for laptops is here — the Snapdragon X Elite. The high-end laptop market is more competitive and varied than the mobile space, especially now that Apple has custom M1 and M2 silicon based on the Arm architecture, so Qualcomm has a job to do to stand out.

We grabbed some benchmarks at the Snapdragon Tech Summit to see how the X Elite compares. A few points of order before we get into the numbers, though. Qualcomm heavily managed the session — we could see the results running but weren’t allowed to run additional apps. Unfortunately, Qualcomm’s choice of tests (such as PCMark 10, Cinebench R24, and 3DMark’s Wildlife Extreme) aren’t widely used in the industry, making detailed comparisons a little complicated. But we’ve dug up the best results we can until we get our hands on the first laptop powered by an X Elite.