We tested over a dozen laptops to see how Snapdragon compares to Intel, AMD, and Apple’s chips

🌈 Abstract

The article discusses the progress Microsoft has made in bringing Windows on Arm to a viable platform, after 12 years of effort. It compares the performance of Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips against Apple Silicon, Intel Core Ultra, and AMD Ryzen processors in various benchmarks and real-world usage scenarios. The article highlights the improvements in CPU performance, power efficiency, and battery life of the Snapdragon-powered laptops, while also noting their limitations in GPU performance and gaming. It also covers the state of x86 emulation and the challenges around app compatibility on Windows on Arm.

🙋 Q&A

[01] CPU Performance

1. How do the single-core and multi-core performance of the Snapdragon X Elite chips compare to other CPUs?

• In single-core performance, the higher-end Snapdragon X Elite chips are slightly faster than the M2 Max chip in the early 2023 MacBook Pro, by 2-3%.
• In multi-core performance, the Snapdragon chips outperform all other CPUs except the M2 Max and M3 Max from Apple.

2. How do the power profiles affect the performance of the Snapdragon laptops?

• There is no meaningful performance difference between AC and battery power on the Snapdragon laptops, provided they are using the same power profile.
• Switching to balanced or recommended power settings can decrease performance on some Snapdragon laptops by 7.5-16%, but can also slightly increase performance (0.9-8.3%) on others.

[02] GPU Performance

1. How do the integrated GPUs in the Snapdragon laptops perform compared to other integrated GPUs?

• The integrated Adreno GPUs in the Snapdragon chips lag behind higher-end Intel and AMD integrated GPUs in benchmarks like Geekbench 6 GPU, where Intel Arc is 29% faster and AMD Radeon 780M is 17-29% faster.
• However, the Snapdragon laptops with native Arm64 apps like Photoshop perform better, surpassing some AMD and Intel-based laptops by up to 10%.

2. How is the gaming performance on the Snapdragon laptops?

• The Snapdragon laptops are not designed for gaming, and very few games have native Arm64 versions.
• Emulated x86 games often have issues, with many crashing or running at unplayable framerates, even on low settings.
• The article notes that gaming on Arm is "at your own risk" due to the compatibility challenges.

[03] Battery Life

1. How does the battery life of the Snapdragon laptops compare to the latest MacBook Airs?

• The Snapdragon laptops averaged 14-16 hours of battery life, which is shorter than the 18 hours achieved by the latest 13- and 15-inch MacBook Airs.
• However, the Snapdragon laptops still offer significantly longer battery life than most Intel- and AMD-based laptops, with the exception of the Intel-based Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra.

2. What factors affect the battery life of the Snapdragon laptops?

• Brightness settings have a significant impact, with the Snapdragon Dell XPS 13 lasting around 15 hours at 75% brightness, compared to 12-14 hours for the AMD-based Acer Swift Go 14.
• The article notes that the Surface Pro with Snapdragon X Plus did not achieve the expected battery life, and the team is working with Microsoft to investigate the issue.

[04] Pricing and Value

1. How do the Snapdragon laptops compare to MacBooks and other Intel/AMD-based laptops in terms of pricing and value?

• The Snapdragon laptops start at $999 and can cost over $2,500, featuring similar specifications to other laptops in that price range, including beautiful OLED displays, high storage, and long battery life.
• Compared to the $1,099 MacBook Air M3, the $999 Surface Laptop 7 with Snapdragon offers a 10-core processor, 16GB of memory, and 256GB of storage for less money.
• The Snapdragon laptops are generally cheaper than their Intel or AMD counterparts, with the Qualcomm Dell XPS 13 being $200 cheaper and the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge being $150 cheaper.

2. What are the key selling points of the Snapdragon laptops?

• The main selling points are better performance and longer battery life for less money compared to Intel and AMD-based laptops.
• The Snapdragon laptops also offer some features that have been in Windows for a while but are just now coming to macOS, such as phone mirroring and automatic window tiling.