Qualcomm's Snapdragon X-series processors are definitely one of the most talked about products in the PC world this year, not only as a bet by Microsoft to "beat the MacBook" and a hope to "revive Windows on ARM", but even to alarm the big brother Intel, who threatened to "absolutely beat" Qualcomm with its next new product.
Finally, nearly a year after its release, new products equipped with this processor have been launched one after another, and judging from various measured experiences, the ARM version of Windows may really have a play this time.
Shake a lot of manufacturers, what is the strength?
Unlike Apple's systems, chips, and products, Qualcomm is essentially just a chip-maker, although it has Microsoft's full support behind it, but if there are no other OEMs in the market who vote with actual actions, then this chip can only be said to be thunderous and rainy, and it can be expected that it will not make any waves.
Therefore, whether Qualcomm talks about chips or Microsoft talks about Windows on ARM, every keynote speech will definitely be "Khan Big Soldiers", indicating how many friends are entering the game now, which is not only for consumer protection, but also for industry confidence.
At this year's ComputeX in Taipei, Qualcomm officially announced its cooperation with Microsoft, Samsung, Acer, Asus, HP, and Dell, six old PC manufacturers, and brought more than a dozen new notebook products equipped with Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite.
其中不乏一些品牌的旗舰级产品：微软 Surface Pro/Laptop、戴尔 XPS 13、惠普 EliteBook Ultra、联想 ThinkPad T14S、三星 Galaxy Book4 Edge，也有不少著名的笔记本产品线：联想 Yoga Slim 7x、HP OmniBook X、戴尔灵越 Inspiration 14 (Plus)、宏碁 Swift 14 AI、华硕 Vivobook S15 等等。
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X series is divided into two product lines, "Plus" and "Elite", the former is positioned as an entry-level model, and is inferior to the latter's flagship model in terms of core count and GPU performance, but the AI performance of both is the same, and both are equipped with NPU with 45 TOPS computing power.
Although Qualcomm is mainly promoting the Snapdragon X Elite chip, and the outside world is also focused on this flagship product, the performance of the Snapdragon X Plus as a "youth version" should not be underestimated. The Verge deliberately chose the lowest-spec Surface Laptop (Snapdragon X Plus + 16GB + 256GB) for testing, and the original testers had low expectations, but this "beggar" performance exceeded expectations.
图源：The Verge
First of all, one of ARM's biggest strengths - battery life, in the evaluation, the Surface Laptop lasted a total of 7 hours under full brightness, downloading multiple games, making video calls, and working with Photoshop, and basically lasted a day and a half to two days of daily light use. The reviewer says he's never had a PC laptop before, without having to carry a power supply with him at all times and worrying about a battery run out when he opens the screen.
In terms of performance, the daily experience of this device is basically the same as that of Intel and AMD's traditional notebook devices, and the native application + transtranslator can basically cover eighty or ninety percent of daily applications. And in the process of use, the fan of this device hardly goes to work.
Wired magazine tested the ASUS Vivobook S15, a device powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chip, which has a larger battery than the Surface Laptop, so it can provide up to 13 hours of battery life, and the daily use experience can be described as "excellent", and the operation is also "cold" and "quiet".
Apple: the strongest opponent, the best role model
Now when it comes to ARM chips in the notebook field, Apple's self-developed M-series processors that are now used may always be unavoidable.
In 2020, Apple's M1 chip was launched, which strongly popularized the concept of "ARM computers" to the public, proving that the ARM architecture can also fully unleash performance on computers.
Needless to say, ARM has a leaner instruction set than x86, a higher energy efficiency ratio, and is more suitable for mobile products.
In addition to switching to ARM, Apple's M-series chips also adopt a "system-on-chip" solution, which is often heard in the field of mobile phones "SoC (System on Chip)", the concept of this solution is to package memory, CPU, GPU, NPU, etc. together to create a very highly integrated chip.
The advantages of SoCs are first reflected in the unified memory, the CPU, GPU, NPU share a memory pool, which can make the circulation and sharing of data between more efficient, and at the same time, because of the short wiring, the power consumption is also lower.
So, not only Apple and Qualcomm, but even Intel are equipped with unified memory on the upcoming Lunar Lake processors, yes, the Luna Lake that claims to "absolutely beat Qualcomm".
In addition, because the CPU, GPU, memory, and other components that used to be all over the motherboard are integrated into a small SoC chip, the body space is also more, more batteries can be stuffed, and the body is thinner and lighter.
Therefore, the M1 chip first brought the biggest change to the MacBook Air, which has long been criticized for its weak performance and strong heat, and has been transformed into a thin and light laptop that takes into account performance, and everyone loves it.
At that time, Microsoft and Qualcomm were not without ARM products, and the SoC itself was also Qualcomm's "specialty", but the Surface Pro X and Snapdragon SQ1 and 8CX chips at that time were far behind the powerful performance and energy efficiency ratio of M1.
M1 MacBook Air 跑 Windows on ARM 虚拟机，比搭载骁龙 SQ2 的 Surface Pro X 跑分还高…… （图源：Linus Tech Tips）
But to be honest, the threat of Apple's M chip to the PC camp is not as big as imagined, and the Mac platform is still only for a small group of users, whether it is Intel or Apple Core, who will buy Mac, and it will be difficult to switch to Apple because of M chips.
For Qualcomm Microsoft, the M chip shows more of the potential of the ARM platform, and in addition to torturing Qualcomm Microsoft, it also gives an object that can be used as a reference to learn. It's the same ARM, it's the same SoC, why is there such a big gap?
So a year after the M1 debuted, Qualcomm acquired NUVIA, an ARM chip design company founded by a former Apple A chip engineer, replaced the ARM public architecture with a self-designed core, and finally came up with the stunning Snapdragon X Elite in 2023, pointing at Apple's M chip.
Microsoft, which has been defeated repeatedly
I don't know if you remember such a product:
That's right, this product is one of the original Surfaces - Surface RT, and it is also the most "infamous" of Microsoft's many black histories.
The Surface RT is Microsoft's iconic foray into desktop-class ARM products, and it ended badly, with only two generations to be cut in half.
But this product can be said to have died a completely unjust death. Many users bought it back and found that this Windows tablet could not open the software installation package used on the old computer, so they could only go to the store with few applications to download; Although the Office family bucket is preset, it takes a long time to open a Word document......
This reflects the two core problems of Windows on ARM: the poor application ecosystem and the weak hardware performance.
The ARM platform and the x86 platform are not interoperable, and devices with ARM processors cannot run x86 applications without the help of other means, which means that the massive application resources that were originally on the Windows platform have to start from scratch on ARM.
The Windows desktop system is the leader with a massive application ecosystem, but on the mobile side, Microsoft has almost lost repeatedly. After the death of Windows RT, the mobile phone system Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile jumped for a few more years, and finally died in the same undeveloped and unmaintained application ecosystem.
The Surface Pro X, which was restarted in 2019, is equipped with Windows 10 on ARM, which can be said to have not improved much, and even many programs developed by Microsoft have not been able to prepare the ARM version at the beginning of the birth of this device.
Next door, Apple, not only has a strong appeal and perfect migration measures, calling on many developers to develop native ARM applications for it, but also provides a Rosetta 2 transtranslator that can make ARM Macs run x86 applications.
Microsoft has also learned the lesson of the Surface RT and equipped Windows 10 on ARM with a solution that can emulate x86 applications, but at this time, another problem was exposed: the processor performance of ARM PC products was really not enough to withstand the transiger, resulting in the Surface Pro X could only barely emulate 32-bit applications, 64-bit applications were almost difficult to run normally, and after running the transiger, the device battery life almost fell off a cliff.
At that time, in 2019, its flagship product was still running 32-bit applications, which has to be said to be ironic.
It all turned around in 2024, 12 years after the Surface RT was born.
First of all, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X-series chips finally stood up, not only surpassing their weak self, but also having the confidence to wrestle with Apple, claiming to be ahead of Apple M3 in multi-core performance.
And then more importantly, in terms of ecology, after a few years of development, the ecology of Windows on ARM has improved, and apps such as Chrome, Photoshop, Spotify, and Davinci Resolve have native versions. This year, Microsoft has also brought in a leading developer like Adobe to call on more developers to participate in the construction of the Windows on ARM ecosystem.
Also because of the strength of the Snapdragon X-series chips, Microsoft has introduced a stronger Prism transpiler, claiming that the simulation x86 is twice as fast as before.
In terms of actual experience, The Verge tested non-native small and medium-sized apps such as Notion and iA Writer, and the experience was very smooth, while larger apps such as Discord also ran more smoothly than before.
@笔吧评测室 I did a compatibility test for the applications that are used more in daily life and work in China, and the results were not bad, among the 21 applications tested, 2 could not run, and 2 were relatively stuck, and the specific test situation is as follows:
On ARM, Microsoft did get up early in the morning and catch up with a late set, but at the moment, it seems that Microsoft has caught up.
Qualcomm's path to transformation
If you still think that Qualcomm is mainly a manufacturer of processors for mobile phones, then you may need to keep up with Qualcomm. Qualcomm said it has transformed from a communications company to a "connected computing company".
If you click on Qualcomm's official website, you will find that they already have ten major platforms, in addition to mobile phones, tablets, computers, which we are familiar with, there are also VR/AR, car machines, wearables, audio and other fields, and even wireless networks, industrial Internet of Things, cameras, smart homes, which we may not know Qualcomm will be involved in.
Qualcomm is not only everything, but can even be said to have outstanding achievements in many fields.
For example, in the automotive field, revenue in the first quarter of 2024 will reach 598 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of more than 31%, and Qualcomm also occupies more than eighty percent of the global automotive chip market; In the XR mixed reality headset space, Qualcomm's customers include Meta, DVPR, and Pico, with an 86% share of the XR headset space.
Qualcomm's way of playing is very simple, that is, to change its leading mobile phone chip technology slightly, and decentralize it to various vertical categories, so the advantages of mobile phones have become the advantages of car machines and headsets.
This is exactly how the PC chip plays. For example, the emerging Snapdragon 8cx PC chip is a magic + enhanced version based on the mobile phone chip Snapdragon 855, and the current Snapdragon X series also has a lot of wisdom of mobile phone chips.
In fact, Apple is also the same strategy, Apple TV set-top box, Studio Display display directly equipped with A chip; The M-chip is also the culmination of A-chip technology, and in addition to the Mac, it is now also coming to the Vision Pro.
Unlike the car machine and XR, the PC field is not a new world to be opened up by Qualcomm, but a stage that already has a strong defender. Qualcomm is very smart and uses a limelight to kick the hall, that is-AI.
While AI is the undertone of almost all smart devices in 2024, on Qualcomm and Microsoft, AI can be said to be "strong", at least in terms of publicity.
Microsoft has come up with the AI PC device brand for Copilot+ PC this year, and it is also debuting on Qualcomm Snapdragon X devices. Although at present, everyone has the Copilot+ PC device in their hands, the most AI part is still this brand name.
The most critical "Recall" AI feature is that Copilot+ PC cannot be implemented for the time being due to controversy
AI PCs, or Copilot+ PCs, may be more of a front for Qualcomm to break into the PC market further: these Snapdragon X devices are essentially Windows on ARM laptops, just entering the market with a new "Copilo+ PC" gimmick.
With the new Copilot+ PC, Microsoft is reintroducing Windows on ARM, which has lost market confidence.
Windows on ARM，任重道远
Of course, Qualcomm and Microsoft have only achieved very preliminary results, and Windows on ARM has a long way to go.
It's not easy to build an app ecosystem from scratch, and Microsoft has already suffered from WP phones. While the Prism transpiler is much more usable and user-friendly than it used to be, it needs to be improved when running large programs, such as Adobe's Premiere Pro, which makes people more eager to expect a native version.
And the game ecosystem, which used to be a far leading field for Microsoft, now has to start from scratch. Masterpieces such as "Cyberpunk 2077" and "Shadow of the Tomb Raider: Shadows" are either stuck or unable to open at all under the transiger.
Games that use anti-cheat technology also don't work on WoA, picture: The Verge
Therefore, establishing an ARM native application ecosystem is not only a long-term strategy, but also a fundamental solution.
As for Qualcomm Snapdragon X-series chips, although they have surpassed their once weak self, there is still a lot of room for improvement.
For example, battery life, many test results have shown that although the Surface Laptop has performed well, it is still some distance away from the M3 MacBook Air, however, with the increase of native applications, the battery life of Qualcomm chips is also expected to be further longer.
YouTube 主播 Max Tech 评测 Surface Laptop 7（Elite 版）和 M3 MacBook Air，一系列测试后前者还剩 32% 的电量，而后者还剩 50%
In benchmark testing, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite's Surface Laptop outperforms the M3 MacBook Air in multi-core performance, although the MacBook Air still leads in single-core performance. And Qualcomm still has a lot of room for improvement in GPU performance, with the ASUS Vivobook S15 trailing frame rates by 10% to 20% compared to Intel Core Ultra 7 machines in GPU performance tests.
What's more, the M3 is more like Apple's entry-level chip, and the real opponent of Qualcomm X Elite should be the more insurmountable M3 Pro and M3 Max.
There is another big obstacle for Qualcomm PC to be promoted, and that is the price. Other configurations are the same, ASUS's Vivobook Pro 15 notebook, the Core Ultra5 version is priced at a minimum of 5799 yuan, while the Snapdragon X Elite version comes to 7999.
Back then, we reviewed the Surface Pro X, and the evaluation we gave was "suitable for a second device": it is excellent for use on the go, but it is embarrassing to use the main machine, which is a bit like the iPad Pro.
Now, although the notebook equipped with Snapdragon X Elite is still the main "thin and portable", it has stronger performance and compatibility, and can be used as a workhorse for writers. With the arrival of professional-grade native applications such as Adobe, Qualcomm PCs are becoming more and more hopeful.
So, Windows on ARM has become? It hasn't worked out yet, but it has a more promising future than ever, and it has more strength to break the game.
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