Qualcomm Snapdragon / Arm powered Windows laptops have been around for a few years now, but struggled to gain much traction. The first few iterations were bogged down with performance and compatibility problems. I reviewed the HP Envy X2 a couple of years ago, and while it was good, there were a lot of problems. I still use it now, and it has improved over the years, with Windows receiving regular updates making the laptop more usable.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 vs Gen 1 vs Intel
Qualcomm has continued to develop their laptop orientated Arm chipsets and the with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 they promise to offer the best performance yet.
Qualcomm claim that the new chipset can offer a 18% performance gain over a 10th gen Intel Core i5
Qualcomm is not being very forthcoming with how this is different from the previous Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 1
They both have the same Qualcomm Kryo 495 CPUs, but they have not disclosed the frequencies. They don’t even state which GPU it is but I assume it is the same Qualcomm Adreno 680 GPU.
It looks like the Gen 2 now has Bluetooth 5.1 and now has Wi-Fi 6. Both chipset optionally use the X55 5G modem or native LTE via the X24 modem.
All the performance numbers Qualcomm state are in relation to Intel systems, rather than their previous chipset.
Acer Spin 7
So with it completely clear how the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 has changed since the first generation, Acer is the first to announce a laptop with the Gen 2.
Basically, it does all the good stuff that a Windows on Arm notebook should do:
- 24 hour battery life, always on always connected
- A Qualcomm X55 5G modem for ultra-fast connectivity
- 14-inch Full HD IPS display with convertible form factor
- Wacom AES 1.0 to offer users an authentic sketching or note-taking experience on the device’s touch screen.
- 1.4 kg light and 15.9 mm thin (which is actually a bit heavy for this type of notebook in my opinion)
- Fingerprint sensor for Windows Hello
Absolutely no word on price or availability, this is the first Acer laptop with Qualcomm too, so who knows how much they will charge. The 961g Samsung Galaxy Book S with the last generation Snapdragon 8cx will set you back £999
