Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chip is making a big noise when it comes to battery saving in Windows laptops. The company claims that it is 50-70% better than Intel and AMD chips, especially when the laptop is running without a charger. But is it really that great? To find out, I personally tested the Snapdragon X Elite, Intel Core Ultra 7 256V, and AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395. In this essay, I will tell you how they fared on battery, how efficient they were, and how they perform in real life.
For the test, I chose three laptops: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (Snapdragon X Elite), Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel Core Ultra 7), and HP ZBook Ultra G1a (AMD Ryzen AI). These chips aren't exactly the same—the Snapdragon has 12 cores and a 3.4 GHz speed, the Intel has 8 cores and 4.8 GHz, and the AMD has 16 cores and 5.1 GHz. Still, my goal was to see how well their performance held up on battery. I tested each laptop in plugged-in mode, "Best Performance" mode on battery, and "Balanced" mode. Windows power settings made a big difference, so I checked every angle.
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The Snapdragon X Elite did amazing on battery. In the Geekbench 6 test, its single-core score dropped by just 3-4% and multi-core score by 2% in battery mode. This is amazing, because Intel and AMD chips tend to weaken by 30-40% on battery. For instance, the Intel Core Ultra 7's single-core score dropped by 40%, and the AMD Ryzen AI's by 25-30%. The fact that Snapdragon is almost completely efficient on battery puts it miles ahead of the rest.
But when it comes to battery life, the difference is not as big as Qualcomm claims. In my tests, Snapdragon laptops gave 14-15 hours of battery, which is just 2-3 hours more than the top Intel and AMD models. For example, Microsoft Surface Pro 11 (Snapdragon X Elite) lasted 12 hours and 15 minutes in web browsing, while Intel and AMD laptops lasted 10-11 hours. Yes, MacBook (Apple M3) beats all of them by lasting more than 17 hours. So Snapdragon is good, but not magic.
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In real life, Snapdragon's strength is seen in its coolness and silence. People say that its laptops run fast even on battery and do not heat up, while Intel laptops start heating up quickly and the fan makes noise. But Snapdragon's ARM design also brings some issues like incompatibility with some older x86 software. Intel and AMD's x86 chips have an edge here as they run all kinds of apps and games with ease.
Finally, Snapdragon X Elite is better than Intel and AMD in terms of battery efficiency and speed, but the advantage in battery life is only 2-3 hours. If you work for hours without a charger, Snapdragon is your friend. But if you want gaming or complete software freedom, Intel and AMD are still strong. Snapdragon has taken the lead in the race, but the race is still on.