Snapdragon X Plus was launched on Wednesday as Qualcomm’s latest Arm-based chip for laptops. It follows the launch of the chipmaker’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon X Elite platform. The latest laptop processor is equipped with a 10-core CPU and a 45 TOPS NPU, along with support for 64GB of RAM. Qualcomm has also touted the on-device artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities of the Snapdragon X Plus chip, which comes with support for three external displays at 4K HDR resolution. along with 5G and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity.
The new 4nm Snapdragon X Plus platform (XIP-64-100) is comprised of 10 Oryon CPU cores with a peak clock speed of 3.4GHz, and a 3.8 TFLOPs Adreno GPU. It is also equipped with a 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU from Qualcomm that enables support for on-device AI computing. The chip supports up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM, along with NVMe (PCIe Gen 4) or UFS 4.0 or storage.
According to details shared by Qualcomm, the Snapdragon X Plus platform is 37 percent faster than competing processors — that it did not name, but are expected to be Apple’s M-series chips — while offering up to 54 percent better power efficiency. It supports a 4K HDR on-device display with a 120Hz refresh rate, along with up to three 4K HDR external displays simultaneously.
Snapdragon X Plus sits below the flagship Snapdragon X Elite processor (tap to expand)
Photo Credit: Qualcomm
The chipmaker demonstrated the on-device AI capabilities of the Snapdragon X Plus using Riffusion for generating music in Audacity, live translation of 100 spoken languages in OBS Studio, and using Codegen to generate fresh code with generative AI (GenAI).
The Snapdragon X Plus is equipped with dual 18-bit Spectra image signal processors (ISP) that supports up to 64-megapixel cameras and up to 4K HDR video recording. The chipset comes with Qualcomm Aqstic audio support, along with the proprietary aptX audio codec.
Connectivity options on the Snapdragon X Plus include 5G (mmWave, Sub-6GHz), Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 5.4. Cellular connectivity is enabled by the chipmaker’s Snapdragon X65 5G modem, while Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections work over the Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 connectivity system. The chip also enables USB 4 connectivity with three USB 4 ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 2, and an Embedded USB (eUSB2) port.
According to Qualcomm, laptops with the latest Snapdragon X Plus chip will be available in mid-2024, and the chipmaker is yet to provide a list of OEMs that will introduce new laptop models with the 4nm processor. Customers will be able to purchase laptops powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite chips — such as the purported Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 (2024) — in the coming months.
