Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon X Plus Laptop Chip Featuring World's Fastest NPU

In a recent showcase, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon X Plus, a new addition to its Snapdragon X series, aimed at competing directly with Apple Silicon. This announcement follows the October debut of the Snapdragon X Elite chip. The Snapdragon X Plus, as suggested by its name, is a more accessible and less powerful variant of the Snapdragon X Elite, both of which are slated for mid-2024 releases in Windows-on-Arm platform laptops.

Qualcomm emphasized the artificial intelligence capabilities of the new Snapdragon X series chips during the unveiling. The Snapdragon X Plus is equipped with 10 custom Oryon CPU cores developed by Qualcomm. According to the company, this CPU delivers a 37% improvement in performance and a 54% reduction in power consumption compared to its competitors.

Another focal point of Qualcomm's presentation was the chip's Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and its potential performance in AI-related tasks. The Snapdragon X Plus features the fastest NPU for laptops globally. The capabilities of Qualcomm’s specialized Hexagon NPU are measured at 45 TOPS (trillions of operations per second), which the company claims will provide unprecedented performance, efficiency, and AI capabilities on Windows PC devices.

These AI capabilities are likely to enable developers to add numerous new and exciting application features, significantly simplifying user experiences. However, realizing these features requires more than just powerful chips.

Interestingly, the Snapdragon X Plus has recently been listed on GeekBench ML in a mysterious device with 16 GB of memory, which could potentially be the upcoming Surface Pro 10.