Qualcomm Snapdragon X 8-core processor designed for mid-range laptops

Qualcomm has introduced a new Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) single-chip system, designed for mainstream laptops with an estimated price of about $ 600. The chip complements the Snapdragon X series, which previously included the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus.

The new SoC is equipped with eight ARM Oryon cores with a clock frequency of 3.0 GHz, 30 MB of cache, Adreno graphics with a performance of 1.7 TFLOPS and an NPU unit with 45 TOPS, which meets the requirements of the Microsoft Copilot+ PC platform.

In terms of characteristics, the Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) is close to the younger version of the Snapdragon X Plus, but differs in lower frequencies. Qualcomm compares the new product with the Intel Core 5 120U (Raptor Lake-U) and claims that its performance and energy efficiency are significantly higher.

The first laptops based on the Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) will be available soon. Manufacturers include Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo.

MediaTek has previously announced a new mid-range processor, the Dimensity 8400, which is expected to compete with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3. The processor features eight Cortex-A725 cores clocked at up to 3.25 GHz and promises a 41% performance boost over the 8300.

The Dimensity 8400 supports WQHD+ (1440p) displays with a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, as well as LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage. The chip also supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.4, and has a new 5G-A modem that provides download speeds of up to 5.17 Gbps.

The Arm Mali-G720 MC7 GPU improves performance by 24% and reduces power consumption by 42%. The chip also features the MediaTek NPU 880, which accelerates operations with integers and floating-point numbers, as well as generates text and works with larger language models more efficiently.

In addition, the Dimensity 8400 is equipped with the Imagiq 1080 ISP, which supports sensors up to 320 megapixels and improved zoom. It also reduces power consumption by 12% when shooting 4K HDR video. The first smartphones with the Dimensity 8400 chip will appear in early 2025.