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The first Windows PCs with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips are expected to launch this year, and if you trust the official benchmarks released by Qualcomm (and confirmed by a number of independent journalists), Qualcomm has finally achieved its goal of developing chip that offers better performance-per-watt than anything available from Intel or AMD.
If the chip lives up to its promise in real-world conditions, that means we could see thin and light Windows laptops with longer battery life and better performance. So Qualcomm has only shown the chip in reference designs, not real laptops. But WalkingCat has leaked a set of pictures that give us an idea of what to expect from at least one upcoming Snapdragon X Elite laptop.
According to WalkingCat, the pictures show the upcoming Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14 (2024) Snapdragon Edition laptop, which appears to be a notebook with a 14.5 inch display and an ultra-thin design.
As the name suggest, the laptop shares some design elements with the Intel-powered Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Gen 9 laptop that launched earlier this year. Both notebooks have slim bezels around the display, a webcam bar that extends beyond the top of the screen, upward-facing speakers, a large touchpad and a keyboard with a Windows Copilot key.
But the Snapdragon Edition appears to have a thinner body with rounded edges. This model has three USB Type-C ports, but there’s not enough room for the USB Type-A or HDMI ports found on the Intel model. So you may need a USB-C hub or adapter if you want to connect some peripherals.
That’s about all we can glean from the pictures: WalkingCat says no specs have been leaked yet aside from the fact that this is a Snapdragon Edition laptop. But I suspect there are at least a few other features this model has in common with the Intel version: quad speakers, a 180-degree hinge (it certainly doesn’t look like it can bend 360 degrees).
I also suspect this laptop will be relatively expensive. Prices for models with Intel Meteor Lake chips currently start at $937, and I’d be surprised if the new Snapdragon-powered model was any cheaper than that.
Yoga Slim 7 14(.5) 2024 Snapdragon Edition pic.twitter.com/k29LupeWk6
— WalkingCat (@_h0x0d_) April 17, 2024
where is the full specification? it’s a waste of time, I don’t care. Support will be the same as for phones (locked). How many times has it been impossible to upload a new version of Android because of the CPU drivers and the manufacturer has blocked this possibility. We’ll see if we can run Linux on it…
https://www.linaro.org/blog/qualcomm-and-linaro-enable-latest-flagship-snapdragon-compute-soc/
So lets hope it will work 🙂
I think one big caveat so far is that the performance shown is for natively compiled binaries, not jyst for ARM 64, but optimized for Qualcomm, with any specific libraries for their ISA extensions and accelerators they use. The question is if there’s enough incentive for companies to do porting and the requisite massive re-testing just for one specific architecture. Otherwise we are back to the situation with the old Qualcomm based Surface, with virtually all apps running in emulation/ binary translation. I have not seen the later aspect of running x86 binaries on these new Snapdragons benchmarked.
I don’t think that there will be a lot of traction with these until they can best Intel or (especially) AMD Ryzen performance for less money.
Thin, but at the cost of ports, battery capacity, and most likely the ability to run anything other than windows. And for very little reduction in bulk from laptops that were already super thin to begin with, and it won’t even draw the eyes of the average person because it doesn’t have an apple logo on the back.