Qualcomm to Launch New Snapdragon X Series Chip That Will Power More Affordable AI PCs Later This Year: Report

Qualcomm could soon announce a new variant of the Snapdragon X series chipset at the Internationale FunkAusstellung Berlin (Berlin International Radio Exhibition) 2024 event on Tuesday. The new Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 model, is said to power the “second wave” of AI PCs, also known as Copilot+ PCs. This chipset will reportedly provide 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS). Lenovo, Asus, and Acer have already begun to list new laptop models with this chipset. The first laptop to be equipped with the processor is said to be the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5.

New Snapdragon X Series Chipset Variant to Reportedly Power AI PCs

According to a Winfuture report, new AI-enabled laptops with the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 are likely to be launched in the final quarter of the year. Some of these laptops are could be unveiled at IFA 2024, but it's worth noting that Qualcomm is yet to announce the new variant of the Snapdragon X Plus chipset. 

The publication states that the new variant of the Snapdragon X series chipset will feature eight cores instead of 10 or 12 cores in the previous variants. It is said to offer a maximum clock speed of 3.4GHz. The chipset is also expected to deliver weaker GPU benchmark scores compared to the older variant.

Lenovo will reportedly launch the first Copilot+ PC with the new Snapdragon X series chipset dubbed the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 at the IFA 2024. The notebook was spotted on the Amazon Germany website. It features a 14-inch WUXGA OLED screen and is available in a Grey colour option. The listed device sports 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD inbuilt storage. It is backed by a 57Wh battery.

The report also claimed that the new Snapdragon X series chipset will also be equipped with the Vivobook S15 and the ProArt PZ13. The Acer Swift Go 14 is another laptop to feature the new variant of the processor.

While the new variant of the Snapdragon X series chipset will power several new laptops, Intel is also gearing up the launch of its Lunar Lake chipset which is said to offer up to 67 TOPS of performance.

Speaking about how the company plans to hold onto its market share, Mike Roberts, Vice President & Global Head, Product, Partner and Technology Marketing at Qualcomm told Gadgets 360, “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 core to who we are being a mobile company. So, we have a sustainable advantage of ARM versus x86.”