The Snapdragon X Elite and the Snapdragon X Plus are found in notebooks sporting a higher price bracket, which limits Qualcomm’s options when tapping into the ARM-based market. Thankfully, the San Diego firm was well aware of the competition, which is why, at the CES 2025 trade show, the company has unveiled a new chipset called the Snapdragon X, and it will be found in machines stamped with a $600 price tag. Last year, we reported that Qualcomm had clear intentions of partnering with various OEMs to introduce an affordable model, so let us dive into the specifications real quick.
The Snapdragon X will boast similar on-device AI capabilities, but in single-threaded and multi-threaded applications, there will be a notable difference
One of the biggest differences between the Snapdragon X and the other SKUs is the core count. You now get an 8-core configuration with four performance and four efficiency cores, with a maximum clock speed of 3.00GHz, coupled with 30MB of total cache. In the specifications sheet below, Qualcomm has not listed the boost clock speed, meaning that the Snapdragon X will be limited to 3.00GHz, affecting both single-core and multi-core performance.
The Adreno GPU used in the Snapdragon X has a maximum TFLOPS of 1.7, similar to the lower-end Snapdragon X Plus. However, when talking about on-device AI capabilities, the Snapdragon X punches above its weight class as the Hexagon NPU flaunts 45 TOPS, along with support for high-speed LPDDR5X RAM, up to 64GB. The latest silicon can also be paired with a PCIe NVMe Gen 4 SSD, with the entire package commanding sufficient bandwidth to support up to three 4K 60Hz external monitors.
The Snapdragon X also supports cellular connectivity thanks to the Snapdragon X65 5G modem and Wi-Fi 7. Like the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus, Qualcomm has leveraged TSMC’s 4nm ‘N4P’ process for the new silicon, delivering an incredible ‘performance per watt’ metric that will ensure that notebooks featuring the SoC last for significantly longer.
What is remarkable to see is notebook models like the 2-in-1 Lenovo IdeaPad 5x powered by the Snapdragon X Plus and sporting 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD listed on Amazon for just $659, suggesting that future Snapdragon X laptops could be sold for as low as $550 in the coming months. Of course, where Qualcomm has breached the pricing obstacle, it has yet to cross the app compatibility bridge, a feat that Apple has scaled when it first announced its family of Macs powered by the M1.
