During the Copilot+ debut, Microsoft and OEMs announced PCs powered by Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus, claimed by Qualcomm to be the only devices currently capable of delivering the full Copilot+ experience. These platforms feature AI technology and performance efficiency, enabled by an NPU for laptops capable of 45 TOPS. Over 20 Copilot+ PCs from OEMs like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, and Samsung are available for pre-order starting June 18. The Snapdragon X Elite features the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU and claims the highest NPU performance per watt, and the Qualcomm Oryon CPU, which matches competitor peak performance at 60% less power.
What do we think? Many people in the PC industry have been wondering why Qualcomm has been so mum about its new Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite processors that can run Windows. The announcement at Microsoft’s event was more than anyone expected and puts Qualcomm at the head of the class, which has to annoy the hell out of Intel, which initiated the concept of the AI PC.
Qualcomm takes pole position in AI PC rollout
At Microsoft’s pre-developer conference in Redmond, Washington, announcing Copilot+, Qualcomm was on display with 22 Snapdragon-powered notebooks running Microsoft’s Copilot+ AI assist software.
During the Copilot+ debut, Microsoft and OEMs announced PCs powered by Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus, the only devices, claims Qualcomm, currently capable of delivering the full Copilot+ experience. These platforms’ AI technology and performance efficiency, says Qualcomm, are set to revolutionize PC interaction. Qualcomm says it and Microsoft are advancing intelligent computing and transforming the PC landscape.
The company said these platforms will power this new category as Copilot+ revolutionizes users’ interactions with their PCs. Qualcomm said it and Microsoft are taking intelligent computing to the next level and transforming the PC experience.
- Copilot+ PCs: This new category of devices is powered by Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus.
- Battery life: Multiple days of battery life are offered.
- AI experiences: Unique AI experiences are powered by the world’s fastest NPU for laptops at 45 TOPS and leading performance per watt.
- Availability: The first wave of over 20 Copilot+ PCs was announced by leading global OEMs, including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, and Samsung.
Qualcomm says it is reclaiming performance leadership in the Windows PC ecosystem with the Snapdragon X Elite. Featuring the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, it offers, the company claims, the highest NPU performance per watt for laptops, delivering up to 2.6× the performance of the Apple M3 and up to 5.4× that of the Intel Core Ultra 7. The integrated NPU architecture delivers up to 24 TOPS per watt peak performance in applications like super resolution. The Qualcomm Oryon CPU in Snapdragon X Elite, says the company, excels in performance per watt, matching competitor peak PC CPU performance at 60% less power.
For the launch of the Snapdragon X Plus, Qualcomm demonstrated new AI-optimized applications and features running on the 45 TOPS NPU, including:
- Code generation in Visual Studio Code from CodeGen, to assist programmers by generating fresh code instantly with on-device generative AI.
- Music generation in Audacity, using Riffusion on-device AI, to generate new music from prompts or pre-existing music.
- Live captions in OBS Studio, to provide automatic translation of 100 spoken languages into live captions in 100 languages using Whisper on-device, in real time, during livestreams.
OEMs are expected to launch PCs powered by Snapdragon X Plus alongside devices powered by Snapdragon X Elite starting mid-2024.