In October 2023, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon X Elite, the company’s current flagship lineup of chipsets for Windows laptops. With the help of the ARM architecture, these SoCs offer better performance than many high-end x86-based processors from AMD and Intel while consuming significantly less amount of power.
While these SoCs are very impressive, they also seem to cost a lot as laptops with them aren't cheap, such as the Galaxy Book 4 Edge 14-inch and the Galaxy Book 4 Edge 16-inch, which start at $899 and go up to $1,349 in the United States. People who want powerful devices for heavy tasks might not mind paying the premium. Others, however, might, keeping them from getting their hands on the future of Windows laptops. Well, Qualcomm has now come up with a solution to the problem.
Qualcomm has launched the Snapdragon X Plus series of chipsets for Windows laptops. SoCs in this series are cut-down versions of the ones in the Snapdragon X Elite lineup. While all the models in the Snapdragon X Elite series came with a 12-core CPU, the Snapdragon X Plus lineup offers two SKUs with a 10-core CPU and the two SKUs with an 8-core CPU. The 8-core models also have a different, lesser powerful GPU. All four SKUs have lower cache capacity, as you can see in the image below.
With these downgrades, the Snapdragon X Plus should cost significantly less than the Snapdragon X Elite. That seems to be the case considering that prices of laptops with the new SoCs are lower than the ones with the flagship chipsets. Samsung also launched a laptop with the Snapdragon X Plus yesterday — the Galaxy Book 4 Edge 15-inch. However, the brand hasn’t announced its price yet. The new lineup allows manufacturers to offer affordable laptops with Qualcomm’s technology.
