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Qualcomm continues to challenge both Intel and Apple in the processor market, as the tech giant claims the mid-range model of its Snapdragon X series of chips outruns the M3 in performance. It’s a bold statement that could put its chips squarely in the running for the best processors you can get in a laptop, but does it really hold water? And what would that mean for its competitors? Qualcomm recently announced a new lower-end model of its next laptop-grade SoC, the Snapdragon X Plus, which shares similarities with its flagship Snapdragon X Elite. There are a few key differences, however. The 4-nanometer process Snapdragon X Plus features 10 cores and is missing the dual-core boost found on the Snapdragon X Elite. The GPU performance has also been pulled back from the Elite's 4.6 teraflops to 3.8 teraflops. According to Qualcomm’s benchmarks for the Snapdragon X Plus, which runs at 3.4Ghz with 42MB of total cache, its performance matches the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H while still outperforming it on power efficiency by a claimed 54%. It also claims a 10% performance margin over Apple’s M3 processor, another large boast. While it’s definitely important to take all these claims with a grain of salt since they come from Qualcomm and we haven’t tested any of this ourselves, if any of them turn out to be true, this could be serious news for both Intel and Apple — especially the former. Snapdragon X Plus could be a game changer The 10% claim concerning Apple’s M3 is a bit on the low side, but even if the Snapdragon X Plus turns out to be as or nearly as good as the M3 and not superior, that’s still major competition. Intel’s CPU market share as of 2024 is 75% for laptops and 64% for desktop PCs, a massive hold compared to AMD and Apple. However, one of Intel’s current issues is the decreased battery life in its laptops. A Qualcomm chip netting performance levels around the incredibly powerful M3 while maintaining its current standard of battery life of around 20 hours would absolutely be an Intel killer and a major Apple challenger. We could be looking at a chip that could and probably would threaten Intel’s market hold. This is further demonstrated by a new report that asserts the Surface Pro 10 will be outfitted with the Snapdragon X Plus. The Pro 10 is already set to be of higher quality with a brighter OLED screen and boosted front-facing webcam (including AI capabilities) as well as a Qualcomm chip that features superior performance and better battery life. There’s also the fact that Baldur’s Gate 3 was playable — and played well — on the Snapdragon X Elite through emulation, which is even more impressive considering the technical issues in the past due to compatibility with Windows on Arm (WoA). If Qualcomm can achieve this with other AAA titles, Apple should be worried about its M3 MacBook gaming ambitions. It remains to be seen how accurate Qualcomm’s benchmark boasts are in the long run, but if it’s close to what it claims, we could see a major shift in the laptop market away from Intel, and that level of emerging competition is always good for the consumer. You might also like Leaks for Snapdragon X Elite show a CPU that's a serious threatApple should be worried – Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chip threatens AppleQualcomm Snapdragon X Plus may be the laptop chip of Intel and Apple's nightmares View the full article

With certain notebooks ready to be showcased by respective OEMs, Qualcomm has another announcement in the pipeline for April 24. View the full article

The collaboration will bring Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core to devices powered by Qualcomm® processors Today Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, announced a collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., the latest major System-on-Chip manufacturer and designer to join Canonical’s silicon partner program. Through the partner program, Qualcomm Technologies will have access to a secure, open source operating system, and optimised flavour of Ubuntu for Qualcomm Technologies’ software. In addition, optimised Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core images will be available for Qualcomm SoCs, enabling enterprises to meet their regulatory, compliance and security demands for AI at the edge and the broader IoT market with a secure operating system that is supported for 10 years. Security-first and AI ready The massive growth in AI and edge computing is exciting for device manufacturers. However, it also brings considerable challenges due to cybersecurity regulations which place increased security demands on embedded devices. On top of this, devices have to be easy to adopt and use by developers, and need to remain performant. To help meet these challenges, Qualcomm Technologies chose to partner with Canonical to create an optimised Ubuntu for Qualcomm IoT chipsets, giving developers an easy path to create safe, compliant, security-focused, and high-performing applications for multiple industries including industrial, robotics and edge automation. “The combination of Qualcomm Technologies’ processors with the popularity of Ubuntu among AI and IoT developers is a game changer for the industry,” commented Dev Singh, Vice President, Business Development and Head of Building, Enterprise & Industrial Automation, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “The collaboration was a natural fit, with Qualcomm Technologies’s Product Longevity program complementing the 10-year enterprise security and support commitments made by Canonical.” Ideal to speed up time to market Canonical and Ubuntu offer Qualcomm Technologies the tools and peace of mind to meet new IoT, AI and edge computing market challenges head on. By placing Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core at the centre of its devices and products, Qualcomm Technologies is creating a generation of devices that will be easy for developers to use and adopt. The collaboration between Qualcomm Technologies and Canonical will provide options to the industry to accelerate time to market and reduce development costs. Developers and enterprises can benefit from the Ubuntu Certified Hardware program, which features a growing list of certified ODM boards and devices based on Qualcomm SoCs. These certified devices deliver an optimised Ubuntu experience out-of-the-box, enabling developers to focus on developing applications and bringing products to market. “Canonical’s partner programs, in conjunction with Canonical’s expertise in guiding customers navigate their AI and IoT journey, help set the industry bar for performance with robustness, security and compliance. The work to integrate and optimise Qualcomm Technologies’ software with Ubuntu will enable channel partners and manufacturers to bring Ubuntu and Ubuntu Core platforms to a wide range of devices“, said Olivier Philippe, VP for Devices Engineering at Canonical. Join Canonical and Qualcomm at Embedded World The collaboration between Canonical and Qualcomm Technologies kicks off at the Embedded World conference, held at the exhibition centre in Nuremberg, Germany, on 9 to 11 April 2024. Visit Canonical booth at [4-354] Visit Qualcomm booth at [5-161] To find out more about Canonical’s partnership and optimised services for IoT, edge and AI products, stop by Canonical’s booth , or visit https://ubuntu.com/internet-of-things About Canonical Canonical, the publisher of Ubuntu, provides open source security, support and services. Our portfolio covers critical systems, from the smallest devices to the largest clouds, from the kernel to containers, from databases to AI. With customers that include top tech brands, emerging startups, governments and home users, Canonical delivers trusted open source for everyone. Learn more at https://canonical.com/ Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patented technologies are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm is a trademark or registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. View the full article

Qualcomm continues to keep itself busy building up expectations for the incoming Snapdragon X Elite processor, and some freshly revealed hands-on experiences certainly add fuel to this particular fire. Our sister site Tom’s Hardware got the chance to try out a bunch of laptops that have the new ARM-based chip, while listening to claims from Qualcomm about how the Snapdragon X Elite will outgun both Intel’s Core Ultra (Meteor Lake) laptop CPUs and Apple’s M3 silicon (which is a rival ARM part). According to Qualcomm’s testing – add a little seasoning as always with internal benchmarks, not that they’d be faked, of course, but they’re inevitably cherry-picked to present hardware in the best light – the Snapdragon X Elite easily beats Apple’s M3 SoC in Geekbench 6. In multi-threaded testing, the Snapdragon was close to 30% faster than the M3, in fact – although Qualcomm did not provide a single-threaded comparison. Even more eye-opening was the race against Intel, which pretty much saw Team Blue eating Qualcomm’s dust. The Snapdragon X Elite proved 52% quicker in multi-threaded performance, and 54% faster than the Core Ultra 7 155H for single-threaded performance. That’s when both chips have the same power usage – alternatively, the Elite could match the 155H performance-wise while using 60% or 65% less power (for multi- and single-threaded respectively). Pretty impressive? Certainly, although we should bear in mind that Intel does have Lunar Lake CPUs inbound this year, which may not be too far behind Qualcomm’s chip – and those next-gen laptop processors promise to seriously drive forward with power-efficiency. Turning to integrated graphics, the Snapdragon X Elite is apparently up to 36% faster than Intel’s Core Ultra 7 155H, although note the ‘up to’ and that this is a vague assertion (we’re not told what the benchmarking involved). That’s what we mean about cherry-picking, and in the case of integrated graphics, Qualcomm didn’t draw any comparison with the Apple M3 (or faster Intel silicon such as the Core Ultra 9). (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne) Gaming goodness On the gaming front, we also have the hands-on experience of Digital Trends to draw on. The site found that on one of Qualcomm’s reference laptops, the Snapdragon X Elite was able to run Control fairly smoothly at 35 frames per second (at 1080p, with low to medium graphics settings). With the same settings, Baldur’s Gate 3 ran at 30 fps on average. Those are pretty impressive results for contemporary games running under emulation (as it’s an ARM chip, remember, not x86). One of the big hopes for Windows on ARM devices is that emulating software and games (that can’t be run natively as they’re x86) will reach a level where it’s more than palatable, and the Snapdragon X Elite seems to be a good step forward in that direction. Via VideoCardz You might also like... Windows 11 remains an unloved OS – but why won't people upgrade?You can now run Windows 11 seamlessly on Apple silicon MacsDon’t make these 5 big mistakes when using Windows 11 View the full article

Qualcomm has been busy. But then again, when is it ever idle? Today (March 25) the company famous for its wireless solutions, software, and semiconductors has introduced two next-generation Snapdragon Sound offerings to improve the audio experience not just at the premium end of the market, but also to mid-tier earbuds (and possibly even the best budget wireless earbuds), headphones and speakers – namely, the S5 Gen 3 and S3 Gen 3 Sound platforms. The big headlines? Let's start with the more premium S5 Gen 3, which promises "almost 50x more AI power" (more on this later), a better digital-to-analog converter with improved signal-to-noise ratio and a 40% lower noise floor (to boast 24-bit/48kHz better-than-CD-quality sound using the more efficient Bluetooth LE Audio), and Qualcomm's 4th-generation adaptive active noise cancellation. S5 Gen 3 also boasts 50% more memory than the Qualcomm S5 Gen 2 Sound Platform it succeeds and, says Qualcomm, "dedicated cores for audio curation, including hearing loss compensation, ANC, transparency and noise management". Yes, we're looking at a future where your listening gear will not only support Auracast audio sharing (using Bluetooth 5.4), but can then tailor said broadcast to various degrees of hearing loss with ultra-low latency, in real-time. What of that heavy uptick in AI capabilities? John Turner, Qualcomm's Senior Director of Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies International, told me it's hard to give precise user-case improvements because that'll largely depend on what manufacturers want their products to do (Qualcomm offers solutions, engineers get to work harnessing them), but aside from the plethora of noise cancellation filters it affords, "A big advancement we've spoken about is getting on-device microphones to intelligently hear your voice in the office, not the voices of those around you". It's something I'd truly love from my earbuds. Plenty to get excited about in the mid-tier arena, as well as in high-end headphones (Image credit: Qualcomm ) Entry-level headphones are set to get a lot better too On to Qualcomm's S3 Gen 3 proposition and here in the mid-tier arena, the firm has added support for its own Qualcomm Voice & Music Extension Program, which has been around for some time within its S5 tier but is now being made available at S3 level – for the first time. What does this mean for buyers on a budget? Developers will be able to add perks such as fit- and hearing tests, spatial audio solutions, heart-rate monitoring, and other health-tracking options within more affordable earbuds and wireless headphones, that's what. Furthermore, we know that this particular S3 Gen 3 platform will initially be adopted by Vivo with announcements on incoming devices expected in the next couple of weeks. It's a company whose smartphones have received extensive coverage from TechRadar, but its (very affordable) earbuds haven't – yet… Since launching its premium Snapdragon Sound S7 and S7 Pro Gen 1 platforms last October, Qualcomm tells us its extensive customer research has proven that 69% of buyers are willing to spend more to get better quality audio, 70% actively want lossless audio, 73% of customers make sure they're getting better audio every time they buy, and – perhaps most interestingly – 68% of people want to use the same product for every use case scenario. Could this be the end to the best running headphones, when the very best wireless earbuds should be good enough for the job thank you very much? Quite possibly – because if even your most affordable earbuds can monitor your health, why would you need another pair? You may also like Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 could power the next wave of AI-enhanced flagship killersDid Qualcomm just launch the first true 'App Store' for AI?See our pick of the best noise-cancelling earbuds View the full article