The first wave of AI PCs, or as Microsoft calls them, Copilot+ PCs, hit India in the second half of 2024. Snapdragon led the race with its X series chipsets, and several OEMs introduced AI-enabled laptops in the country. While these devices generated a buzz given the hype around artificial intelligence (AI) and the new Copilot-driven features in Windows 11, the impact on the PC market was not significant, with the consumer PC segment witnessing a meagre 2.6 percent shipment growth year-on-year (YoY) in India in 2024, as per market research firm IDC.
While the reasons for this can be speculative and multi-faceted, one key aspect was price-based accessibility in a price-sensitive market. In 2024, only two Snapdragon X series chipset models were available — X Elite and X Plus — and both catered to the premium segment. As a result, the laptops that entered the market were priced steeply and primarily focused on enterprise users. With generative AI capabilities still in its nascent stage in the PC space, the majority of Indian PC buyers are left out of the Copilot+ PC experience.
However, Qualcomm likely prepared for this by introducing new eight-core variants of the X Plus chipset, which are aimed at bringing down the prices of Copilot+ PCs. Then, at the Consumer Electronics Show earlier this year, the chipmaker further solidified its intent with a new Snapdragon X chipset aimed at devices in the $600 (roughly Rs. 52,000) price segment.
After a month’s wait, the Snapdragon X chipset was officially launched in the Indian market. Consequently, Asus opened pre-reservations for the first two laptops — Zenbook A14 and Vivobook 16 — that were equipped with this chipset. With a starting price (of Vivobook 16) of Rs. 65,990 (Zenbook is pricier at Rs. 99,990), these Copilot+ PCs have entered a more massy segment and become more accessible to buyers. But before you go book your potentially first AI PC, there are some things you should know about the newly launched chip.
Snapdragon X Comes With 45 TOPS of AI Performance
Currently, nine different chipset variants are available across the entire Snapdragon X lineup, with varying cores, clock speeds, and GPU performance. However, one unifying factor is the dedicated Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU) with 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS), which can also be found in the new chipset built for budget devices.
For those new to AI parlance, TOPS is essentially a metric used to measure the computational performance of AI hardware, particularly in deep learning and machine learning applications. The higher the metric, the faster an AI model can process information and execute tasks. The metric is also important for developers and those working with AI, as it determines the computation power of a device required to train an AI model. Further, the metric also indicates how power-efficient a chipset is.
With the same 45 TOPS available in the high-end X Elite chipset, Snapdragon X-powered devices will likely offer similar AI processing even in the budget segment. However, since OEM optimisation determines a large part of this, it can vary from brand to brand.
Eight Cores, Slower Clock Speed and No Performance Cores
A CPU can benefit from a more powerful NPU, but at the end of the day, the primary metric is always the CPU performance. Unsurprisingly, since the chipset is aimed at budget laptops and PCs, it does offer lower performance compared to the X Elite and X Plus platforms.
The Snapdragon X is a 4nm chip with eight Oryon CPU cores with a max clock speed of up to 3GHz. In contrast, the X Plus chipsets sport a maximum of 10 cores with up to 3.4GHz peak clock speed on efficiency cores and up to one performance core with 4.0GHz max clock speed, and the X Elite features 12 cores with up to 3.8GHz max clock speed, and up to two performance cores peaked at 4.3GHz.
For the layperson, this means the Snapdragon X chipset gets the lowest performance among the entire lineup. Despite that, the company boasts that “This platform delivers up to 163 percent faster performance at ISO-power than our competitors who also require 168 percent more power at ISO-performance.”
However, in the footnote, the company does reveal that the comparison was done against the Intel Core Ultra 5 120U processor, which was launched in January 2024 and offers more cores and higher clock speeds compared to the Snapdragon X.
The Market Strategy Behind Snapdragon X
In an exclusive conversation with Gadgets 360, Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President of Product Management, Kedar Kondap, highlighted the vision behind entering the budget PC segment with the newly launched processor.
The chipmaker currently has a multi-pronged approach in the retail space, both generating more awareness about AI PCs and creating brand awareness about Snapdragon’s role in the space. Snapdragon became a key partner for Microsoft in introducing Copilot+ branded PCs to the world. The first Surface devices with AI capabilities were also equipped with X series chipsets.
Kondap explained that the company worked to develop compatibility for hundreds of apps that now run natively on Snapdragon PCs. Additionally, the Arm emulator Prism offers reliable performance for those apps that aren’t natively supported. Qualcomm is also working with a large number of large language model (LLM) developers. Its Qualcomm AI Hub offers easy deployment and inference running of AI models and a unified interface to let developers use the LLMs to power their apps.
While he shied away from revealing whether the company plans to partner with OEMs on Snapdragon-exclusive stores, the Snapdragon executive highlighted that the company is focusing on being closer to the consumer to build trust in a device that runs on Snapdragon CPUs.
During the launch event, Qualcomm also announced that it has partnered with Flipkart Minutes to enable the delivery of devices equipped with the Snapdragon X chipset within ten minutes in India.
All of these factors work for Snapdragon when entering the affordable PC segment, where consumer trust plays a big role. However, the company is still a reasonably new name compared to that of Intel or AMD, which have established themselves in this space.
The Snapdragon Experience Zone
Last week, Qualcomm announced the launch of its first-ever Snapdragon Experience Zone in India in partnership with Croma. The retail footprint showcases ecosystem products such as smartphones, PCs, wearables, and audio products featuring Snapdragon chipsets. The store’s employees have been trained to demonstrate the processor’s capabilities, including on-device AI processing.
Buyers will be able to interact with these devices, get hands-on experience, and seek expert advice from the staff. This new initiative allows the company to be closer to the end consumer and not rely on OEMs to set narratives about the brand.
This appears to largely be a marketing-driven move instead of a new revenue channel, and it can boost the company’s perception among potential buyers. Some smartphone buyers already look for Snapdragon-branded processors when deciding to purchase a device, and the company is likely aiming for a similar play in the PC segment with the new Experience Zone.
Optimisation and Power Consumption on Snapdragon X
This section requires a disclaimer first, so here it is. At present, there is no way for us to know exactly how power-efficient the Snapdragon X chipset is since the first Copilot+ PCs with the processor will not be available in the public domain before March 3. Instead, we are focusing on the claims made by the company, conversations we’ve had with company executives, and our experience with other Snapdragon-powered AI PCs.
During the launch event, the company claimed that Snapdragon X offers a battery life “that can go for multiple days on a single charge.” Usually, a claim like that would get an incredulous look from most laptop users, as typically, even with modest usage, devices barely last a day on a single charge, let alone multiple days.
But, as we have seen in our reviews of Snapdragon-powered AI PCs such as the HP EliteBook Ultra G1q (here), HP OmniBook X (here), and Dell XPS 13 (here), these devices have consistently offered a battery backup between 14 hours to more than a day with moderate usage. These premium devices also feature OLED screens that generally tax the battery life. It is possible that with LCD screens and with less power-intensive tasks, the budget laptops could deliver multi-day backup. It still is a tall claim, however.
Last year, Mike Roberts, Vice President & Global Head, Product, Partner and Technology Marketing at Qualcomm, spoke with Gadgets 360 and shed light on the company’s approach towards power optimisation.
He said, “I think our key advantage is performance per watt. Performance is great, but if my battery life stinks, nobody’s going to want to use it. And to me, that’s the core of who we are as a mobile company. So, we have a sustainable advantage of ARM versus x86.”
A large part of this optimisation comes from the parallel processing of the dedicated NPU, which is why Intel and AMD’s chipsets with NPU have also seen an increase in battery life. However, a lot more is done at the architecture and fabrication level, which might be the case with the Snapdragon X chipset.
