Item: Qualcomm Teases Snapdragon X Series Launch On Social Media
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Author: Low Boon Shen

Qualcomm Teases Snapdragon X Series Launch On Social Media

Longtime smartphone chipmaker Qualcomm is about to make its entrance to the PC market very grand – earlier today, the company posted on its social media channels (via @Snapdragon handle on Instagram and X/Twitter) teasing what looks to be the much-anticipated answer to Apple’s M-series, Intel, and AMD: the Snapdragon X series.

👀 Stay tuned for 4/24. pic.twitter.com/8SQ6SfZPT8

— Snapdragon (@Snapdragon) April 18, 2024

The post simply reads: “Stay tuned for 4/24.” In the attached clip, various imagery has hinted the letter ‘X’ followed by a simple “Coming Soon” text on screen. We know that Qualcomm will split this lineup into two names – the premium X Elite series, and the mainstream-centric X Plus lineup; we also know that based on early benchmarks, the indicated performance is competitive with Apple’s M3 SoC powering its latest Macbooks.

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The crucial difference between Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon X chips and the ones offered by Intel and AMD today is something called Instruction Set ְArchitecture (ISA): both Intel and AMD use x86 which dates back to the early 80s; Qualcomm’s ARM-based architecture is similar to Apple’s M-series, making it the closest competitor on paper. The difference means programs on either side are not cross-compatible, at least not without a compatibility layer that often comes with great amounts of performance penalties.

However, based on testimonies from various media outlets trying out early Snapdragon X Elite samples courtesy of the chipmaker, the performance of this new lineup should be very solid. In some cases, it’s capable of playing some AAA titles too – though it’s unclear what graphics settings are used to demonstrate the capabilities. Having a game that runs, and more importantly, runs decently on a completely different chip it’s not designed for is a *huge* deal.

In any case, we have less than one week to know what the chipmaker has in store for us – with the recent discovery of the Snapdragon X-powered laptop, one can safely assume they will be revealed alongside the new chip.