Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite - looks like the Windows world’s answer to Apple Silicon

[alekhkhanna]

Really want this to succeed as WoA is clearly the future, and we will finally have a decent competitor to Apple Silicon.
HP has started SD preorders in India, but the pricing is really bad. Starts at 1.5L for a 300 nits standard panel (how does 1199 or 1299 usd translate to 1.5L ?). Hoping Asus Lenovo Acer etc do better pricing. Most of them have OLED models for 1099-1299 USD in US.

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Guy unboxed and did a small preview of 6 SD laptops

 

[Kaching999]

But those who are looking for efficient mobile gaming this not the answer the new benchmarks suggest that the gaming performance is going to be worse than the last gen ryzen mobile processers.

 

[nullpc]

It's best to wait for 1 week/2 week usage reviews to drop. So far, there seem to be hiccups (expected though, most complaints I've seen are around gaming). These definitely don't seem to scale up to Apple chips but that's fine considering this is like the 1st proper attempt, as long as they end up being usable, efficient and long-lasting.

Seeing some early impressions, it seems like these are good general-purpose laptops but don't expect gaming/serious perf gains vs. Intel/AMD right now. But I'll wait and see in 1/2 weeks how things look like post patches and everything else.

Also a big Q is how fast devs will port their apps/games to support arm64.

 

[TinTinSnowy]

First gen is a flop. It's no where near to M1 experience. M1 was a revolution. I understand Apple had full control over the OS and stuff. But Qualcomm overpromised and undelivered. ARM on desktop is no longer a threat to Intel and AMD. They will crush this Qualcomm's new chip with their next gen on all counts. Apple's advantage of latest node and vertical integration will keep them ahead of the curve for foreseeable future. But the gap is reducing and will get reduced further with next gen x86 offerings. No point in paying any premium for Oryon laptops.

 

[Kaleen Bhaiya]

as long as they end up being usable, efficient and long-lasting.

And affordable!!! Right now manufacturers are going all out to justify that "Elite" tag. So they slap an OLED screen to cover up the performance gap and justify the cost.
I get it that they have to recover the costs and keep the stakeholders @rses happy, but they are not yet there to meet or exceed M series line up and price it almost same as Apple.

I would see how this pans out in 1-2 years, given it's nascent. Right now, there's just dust everywhere.

 

[desiibond]

HP's OmniBook costs bloody 1.20L and EliteBook costs whopping 1.70L. Thats 'tata bye bye Elite X' in India. At that price, they are telling 'go buy a Mac'. I am worried that this will make Chinese to takeover the laptop market by bringing high specced arm design at mass market pricing.

Really want to see X Plus laptops that are in the reach of students and remote workers. Unless there is adoption in these areas, it gets harder for Microsoft and Qualcomm to bring that much needed shift towards WOA.

Future is WOA, there is no doubt about that. I really wish they push to mass market sooner than later.

 

[TinTinSnowy]

worried

Why are you worried about that? That will be a good thing for the consumers.

 

[Heisen]

but they are not yet there to meet or exceed M series line up and price it almost same as Apple.

Because competitors just started to work on ARM stuff after the unveil of Apple M1, they will stay behind for a long time, the amount experience that Apple has with custom chip is unmatched in the industry (software + hardware optimization), I think it's 2008 when they first started using their custom chip in iPhone and designed it even before that.

I think the work on M1 or custom in house chip started why back in 2011, when there were rumor's about Macintosh with ARM chip. Just look how they are pumping up the M series like a candy, they definitely planned it a long time ago, they probably have the next 5 series ready in their pocket that they will release one by one, just like jensen from nvidia said their is no point to give huge performance jump when there is no demand for it.

Apple most likely is working on something even beyond the M series, they just wait for the process nodes to shrink and start the manufacturing of their designs. Staying ahead of the curve.

 

[desiibond]

Why are you worried about that? That will be a good thing for the consumers.

When they bombard a market with cheap devices, the overall quality and reliability standards of that market falls. See the TV market for example. Markets are bombarded with low cost TVs with low reliability. Then there is the problem with data privacy and ads.

 

[animishticomb]

When they bombard a market with cheap devices, the overall quality and reliability standards of that market falls. See the TV market for example. Markets are bombarded with low cost TVs with low reliability. Then there is the problem with data privacy and ads.

On the contrary when there is a plethora of cheap devices, expensive devices and manufacturers work extra hard to provide value and innovation to customers. Look at Samsung in android vs apple in ios - innovation vs stagnation, open vs closed

 

[Kaching999]

Over the years tech that is expensive today is bound to become cheap as newer and more advanced things come in, but that doesn't mean that the quality of more expensive things worsens but the cheaper tech also comes with some strings attached what a 60k phone could do 7 years ago can easily be achieved by a 30k phone today but that brings some caveats with it some ads, untimely software updates, unoptimized performance, etc. which do get resolved over time. So basically you don't get to have the new shiny toy today you will have to leave it in the package for a while and wait to play with it.

Apple most likely is working on something even beyond the M series

I think Apple is going to hit a wall pretty soon. The processor nodes are pretty much at their limit for now plus the performance and efficiency gains have been slowing down since after the M2 launch M3 and M4 chips didn't really bring much change or gains.

 

[TinTinSnowy]

When they bombard a market with cheap devices, the overall quality and reliability standards of that market falls. See the TV market for example. Markets are bombarded with low cost TVs with low reliability.

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite - looks like the Windows world’s answer to Apple Silicon

I'm excited for this chip too especially hearing about ubuntu partnership. Maybe not the first-gen but in a couple of years when it's time to replace my current zen4 laptop.

techenclave.com

My experiences might be anecdotal but a brand cannot sell so many devices if they have reliability concerns over the long term. Mi TVs are most selling in India not because they are cheaper but they also offer good hardware + good software experience (Mi Patchwall). You are very much misinformed about the Chinese brands. They are infact offering better quality at most price points and even innovating much faster. Take a look at Xiaomi's new car plant. Tell me if there is anything in the world comparable to it.

My personal experience with Apple is poor. My 6+ was victim of Bendgate and Apple did nothing.

Then there is the problem with data privacy and ads.

Same concerns are with Samsung and Apple too even if they are slightly better in terms of privacy. Samsung devices are preloaded with shitty bundled apps and Apple is running their own walled ecosystem. None of them offers a true private experience like GrapheneOS on Pixels for example.

 

[alekhkhanna]

HP's OmniBook costs bloody 1.20L and EliteBook costs whopping 1.70L. Thats 'tata bye bye Elite X' in India. At that price, they are telling 'go buy a Mac'. I am worried that this will make Chinese to takeover the laptop market by bringing high specced arm design at mass market pricing.

Really want to see X Plus laptops that are in the reach of students and remote workers. Unless there is adoption in these areas, it gets harder for Microsoft and Qualcomm to bring that much needed shift towards WOA.

Future is WOA, there is no doubt about that. I really wish they push to mass market sooner than later.

Yup. Atrocious pricing and HP has the suckiest specs of all launch SD laptops.
In US, Samsung is giving a free 50 inch UHD TV with Galaxy book for an all inclusive price of 1299 USD.
Somehow 1299 USD will translate to 1.5L once it lands in India. ****ed up pricing.

 

[altair21]

First gen is a flop. It's no where near to M1 experience. M1 was a revolution. I understand Apple had full control over the OS and stuff.

M1 was crap for the first few months, atleast from a dev's perspective, it took a while before it was usable compatibility wise but yeah it doesn't look good for snapdragon at all

personally Idgaf about WoA, I'd rather run Linux on it

 

[desiibond]

M1 was crap for the first few months, atleast from a dev's perspective, it took a while before it was usable compatibility wise but yeah it doesn't look good for snapdragon at all

personally Idgaf about WoA, I'd rather run Linux on it

This is so true. Also, M1 looks insanely fast because Intel chips that time were really bad. Throttling, overheating, very bad battery etc etc. M1 came when Intel was at its worst. The timing was perfect. Intel CPUs improved a lot now (especially the new Core 5 and Core 7 U chips). This is the reason why we are seeing very minute difference between X chips and Intel chips.

But, one thing is for sure.The future is WoA. Microsoft is going to support WoA in future windows updates/versions at the expense of x86. Only the gaming and heavy productivity work will remain on x86.

Right now, students and developers are the biggest gainers from this shift.

 

[kvn95ss]

+1 for running Linux on it, however it needs good GPU support. If the future versions of SD Elite SoCs support ’external’ GPUs, it will be a feature which Apple will probably never support.

I always wanted a Surface Pro because of the portability (Right now using iPad Air with Logitech Combo touch case) and I get a decent Remote Desktop experience, but I would love it if I could run full scale macOS apps on iPad. Logic and DaVinci resolve works pretty well (Sadly Davinci resolve is not in 100% feature parity with the desktop apps).

Speaking of which, we have to wait for 6-9 months or probably a year, when we get the cheaper Acer/Asus/Dell laptops which come with SD processors. Right now we are seeing the high-end laptop models moving to SD, hence the ridiculous price. Also Samsung packaging a friggin TV with the laptop seems a bit too excessive, like they are desperate to push a certain number of units?

There’s also the debacle where SoC is incredibly sensitive to windows ’power saving’ settings, so to unlock the full potential one has to be mindful, select the highest performance setting, and probably use the wall adapter.

 

[alekhkhanna]

Right now, students and developers are the biggest gainers from this shift.

The real shift will happen when enterprise moves to WoA. Till then, the numbers won’t be huge. Microsoft needs to “force” enterprise adoption.

 

[desiibond]

The real shift will happen when enterprise moves to WoA. Till then, the numbers won’t be huge. Microsoft needs to “force” enterprise adoption.

Not right now. Most enterprise laptops fall under 50k-80k price bracket and they all need solid enterprise software support. Anything above 1L, it is mainly MacBook Pros. We need proper laptops with solid enterprise software support and 3-5 year support. LTS is a major factor here. We may see some traction in premium Windows laptops given to executives at high level who are mainly into PPTs and meetings. For them, massive battery life and thin profile will be perfect.

 

[Kaching999]

brand cannot sell so many devices if they have reliability concerns over the long term

Not always true, in 2017 the battery of my Xiaomi Redmi note 3 swole so much that it came out of the back of my phone and I wasn't able to anything about it. The reason for xiaomi's success in India is lower pricing for better hardware not better quality but the long term reliability issues with are definitely present and are a concern. They have improved tremendously over the years and continue to do so but that doesn't mean that they are not there.

My 6+ was victim of Bendgate and Apple did nothing.

Apple has always been a luxury brand in India as compared to us and other countries due to them charging almost double the price for the same product that they sell elsewhere and for that reason I have always personally hated the brand and everything that they stand for, but setting that aside I can admit that they do offer better privacy and quality of life choices in their products for the people who want it.

 

[desiibond]

My personal experience with Apple is poor. My 6+ was victim of Bendgate and Apple did nothing.

Ah man. That is sad. The iPhone 6 was my first iPhone. Purchased phone and a case from Apple Store (Bengaluru). A week in, there was scuffing on the back (that scuffing of aluminium back panels became known issue later). Took it to them and they replaced the phone, no questions asked. I did not even have Apple Care+ that time. But now, I purchase care+ for every apple product. Absolute/total peace of mind. Kid broke Apple pencil's tip and they replaced pencil (charged 1800/-).