Looks like Snapdragon X Plus rivals Intel and Apple after all

The mid-range champion.

Snapdragon X Plus - Image: Qualcomm
Snapdragon X Plus - Image: Qualcomm

Qualcomm has held an internal event showing the prowess of its Snapdragon X Plus processor, detailing its X1P-64-100 model’s specs. It’s not quite to the level of the company’s leading X Elite chipset, but it has a good lead over the base model. This could make it competitive against mid-range Intel and Apple silicon after months of rumours and speculation.

As spotted by Videocardz, Qualcomm X Plus specifications have leaked ahead of its official unveiling. We can expect ten Oryon cores (down from the 12 Oryon of the X Elite) with a max multithreaded frequency of 3.4GHz with 42MB of total cache. Unlike the Elite variants, there’s no Dual Core boost available. As for graphics, the CPU features a Qualcomm Adreno integrated GPU with 3.8 TLOPs (down from the Elite’s 4.6). However, AI sees no hit regardless of SKU, as the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU is the same across all models.

The manufacturer also ran internal benchmarks, showing how Snapdragon X Plus stacks up against the flagship. The results are closer than you may expect despite some apparent differences in hardware. X Plus lags behind X Elite by around 10% to 15% in synthetic benchmarks such as Geekbench 6.2, Cinebench 2024, 3DMark, PCMark 10, and Blender.

While Snapdragon X Elite is unquestionably more powerful, it’s also the chipset that’s expected to power top-end AI-powered laptops. These will likely cost the same as MacBook Pro M3 and similar spec ultrabooks, if a recent Lenovo Yoga Slim Snapdragon Edition leak is a sign of things to come. In contrast, the Snapdragon X Plus is likely to be the more common CPU that we’ll see in more aggressively priced mid-range machines where the mobile hardware is really going to thrive.

The source alleges that Qualcomm will outline the full details tomorrow, April 24. Here, we’ll find out which partners are involved with what machines and how much they’ll cost. Qualcomm is making moves in the incredibly competitive field of AI computing. Its chips can even game better than Apple’s most recent silicon, if we believe the brand’s claims. Exactly how it’ll enter the fold will depend on what’s announced, but the leak is certainly promising.