The first laptops powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite chip are expected to arrive in February and March, according to new hands-on testing shared in a recent video from Hardware Canucks. Early benchmark results suggest Qualcomm’s next-generation ARM processor could challenge top laptop chips from Apple and Intel in several productivity workloads.
Pre-production Asus Vivobook and Zenbook systems were used for testing, running unfinished firmware and software support. Because of this, battery-life testing was not permitted, as future updates are expected to optimize performance and efficiency. Even so, early CPU and rendering benchmarks point to notable gains over the previous Snapdragon X Elite.
In Cinebench 2024 single-thread tests, the Snapdragon X2 Elite variant tested scored 146, significantly higher than the first-generation X Elite but below the Apple M5’s score of around 200. However, in real-world workloads such as Blender rendering and Handbrake video encoding, the new Qualcomm chip reportedly outperformed the Apple M5 and other competitors, completing a Blender render in 3 minutes 31 seconds compared to the M5’s 5 minutes 33 seconds.
Gaming performance remains less impressive. Tests in Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3 showed the chip struggling to maintain 60 frames per second at 1200p on medium or low settings, trailing behind Intel’s upcoming Panther Lake processors and Apple’s latest silicon. Qualcomm continues to position the X2 Elite primarily as a productivity and efficiency-focused chip rather than a gaming solution.
The tested model was not the top-tier Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, meaning final retail devices could deliver higher performance. Battery life will be a key factor once production laptops ship, especially as Qualcomm aims to compete directly with Apple’s efficiency-focused designs.
With commercial systems launching soon, the Snapdragon X2 Elite appears poised to become a major contender in the premium Windows laptop market, particularly for productivity and creative workloads.