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There's been a decent level of buzz around Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite chip for a while now. That's for good reason. It popped up on Geekbench last month, beating its x86 laptop competition by over 30% in single-core performance, and early tests beat out AMD, Intel, and Apple in power. Now we've finally seen it tested by someone other than Qualcomm, and the results are positive, though largely just with similar showings to what Intel and AMD are offering.
Our friends over at Tom's Hardware are among the most critical, though much of that critique lies at the feet of Asus for the build quality and software of the Zenbook A16. For gaming, they say the X2 Elite Extreme is impressive on paper, with 3DMark Steel Nomad scores higher than the M5 MacBook Air and Intel Core Ultra 7 355 Dell XPS 14, but less than the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H Acer Swift.
Hardware Canucks says: "When everything from software to game optimisation aligns just right, the X2 Elite series hits frame rates that place them somewhere between the 288V, HX370, and Ultra X7 Series."
Yet, they note the X2 Elite performs significantly worse in the likes of Dota 2, with "a huge variation between averages and 1% lows, which leads to very, very inconsistent on-screen motion."
Hardware Canucks finishes off its analysis of gaming on X2 Elite, saying, "in many ways, it just feels like the best is yet to come for Qualcomm's Snapdragon series and gaming."
Reviewers seem split on whether the 10-12 hours of battery life is good enough, with Tech Spurt calling it fantastic and Stuff noting it as better than the M5 MacBook Air, whilst Tom's Hardware says, in its testing, the Snapdragon X2 Elite doesn't quite match its competition.
One thing is certainly clear from reviews: Its CPU is a beast. PC Mag registers a standout score in Cinebench (only being beaten by the Ryzen AI Max + Pro 395) and placing at the top of the pile in Geekbench Pro 6. Hardware Canucks testing put it well above Panther Lake, Lunar Lake, and the M5 MacBook Air in Cinebench multithread testing and second place behind the M5 MacBook Air in single-thread testing.
Windows Central argues that the X2 Elite-equipped Zenbook A16 "showcases all the terrific advancements of Windows on Arm64", and the laptop does make a strong argument for this.
All things considered, the Snapdragon X2 Elite has had a strong first outing, with great performance, though Arm still doesn't seem ready to replace my gaming rig. That being said, I don't know if we're that far off from that either. These next few years will be really important for Arm with the Steam Frame helping bring SteamOS to Arm, and a certain green team all set to release a consumer-facing mobile Arm chip.
1. Best overall:
Razer Blade 16 (2025)
2. Best budget:
Lenovo LOQ 15 Gen 10
3. Best 14-inch:
Razer Blade 14 (2025)
4. Best mid-range:
MSI Vector 16 HX AI
5. Best high-performance:
Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10
6. Best 18-inch:
Alienware 18 Area-51
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