It’s June 18th, and the embargo has been lifted. Numerous outlets have published reviews of the Snapdragon X Elite laptops, also known as Copilot+ PCs. The Asus Vivobook S15 has recently been reviewed, showcasing the third SKU (X1E-78-100) in the Snapdragon X series. Here are the key findings on the Snapdragon X Elite’s performance and battery life.
Snapdragon X Elite CPU Performance
Qualcomm has long claimed that the Snapdragon X Elite’s Nuvia-designed Oryon CPU cores would perform on par with Apple’s M3, and this has proven to be accurate.
In his YouTube review, Dave2D demonstrated that the Asus Vivobook S15, powered by the Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-78-100), surpasses the MacBook Air M3 in multi-core tests on Geekbench and Cinebench. It also outperforms the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS.
According to Tom’s Guide, in the multi-core Geekbench test, the Snapdragon X Elite surpasses the base Apple M3. However, in single-core tests, the Apple M3 is about 28% faster than the X Elite, which runs at 3.4GHz.
Snapdragon X Elite GPU Performance
Regarding the Adreno X1 GPU, the Snapdragon X Elite outperforms the AMD Radeon 780M and Intel Arc GPU in the 3DMark WildLife Extreme test. However, it underperforms when using the Vulkan API on Geekbench Compute. Dave2D described the Snapdragon X Elite’s GPU as “decent,” comparable to mobile GPUs from AMD and Intel.
Adobe Premiere Pro does not yet have a native ARM64 app for Windows on ARM. Adobe is working on this, but in the meantime, it can be run in emulation mode, which reviewers find usable for editing videos up to 1080p resolution. Additionally, DaVinci Resolve now runs natively on ARM PCs.
Snapdragon X Elite Battery Life
Battery life is crucial for many users. The Asus Vivobook S15 comes with a 70 Whr battery. Dave2D reports that it lasted for 10 hours and 46 minutes under light load, almost matching the MacBook Air M3’s 11 hours and 18 minutes.
Compared to Intel and AMD-powered laptops, it offers 2 to 3 hours more battery life. Under medium load, it outperformed all other chipsets, lasting 7 hours and 47 minutes. Under heavy load, it lasted 4 hours and 12 minutes, second only to the MacBook Air M3. After overnight sleep, the laptop lost only 1% to 2% of its battery, which is impressive.
Tom’s Guide noted that the battery dropped from 100% to 47% over 12 hours with mixed usage, including Photoshop, more than 20 Chrome tabs, music playback, and Netflix. This suggests the laptop can last two days with mixed usage, a feat typically seen only with M-series Apple MacBooks.
Matthew Moniz reported a battery life of 13 hours and 40 minutes on the Asus Vivobook S15. He noted that using native ARM64 apps improves battery life further, while heavy x86 apps in emulation mode reduce it.
Snapdragon X Elite Gaming Performance
Although the Asus Vivobook S15 is not a gaming laptop and houses the third SKU delivering up to 3.8 TFLOPs (compared to 4.6 TFLOPs on the top-end SKU), its gaming performance is respectable even under emulation. Dave2D showed various games’ framerates on low graphics settings with Auto Super Resolution enabled.
In emulation mode, Cyberpunk 2077 reached up to 34 FPS, Baldur’s Gate 3 up to 35 FPS, and Overwatch 2 up to 83 FPS, with occasional stutters.
Matthew Moniz noted that x86 games don’t run well on the Snapdragon X Elite and often glitch. However, ARM64-compiled games run smoothly. A list of games optimized for Snapdragon X Elite is available in our dedicated article.
Snapdragon X Elite Emulation Performance
At the Copilot+ PC launch, much was said about the new Prism emulation layer, which has proven impressive. Users won’t encounter issues running light to medium x86 apps, and even heavy apps like Adobe Premiere Pro perform well, with reduced render times nearly matching native performance.
Gaming under emulation is respectable but can include occasional stutters, and many games refuse to load due to kernel-level anti-cheat implementations. Microsoft and Qualcomm are collaborating with gaming studios to bring native games to the ARM64 platform, and the Prism emulation layer is being optimized for better gaming performance.
Snapdragon X Elite: Thermals and Fan Noise
Unlike the fan-less MacBook Air M3, Snapdragon X Elite laptops feature cooling fans. Dave2D noted that during multitasking, the fan noise is minimal, staying within 30 dB for light to medium tasks. However, it becomes more audible, reaching up to 42 dB under heavy applications.
Matthew Moniz also mentioned that for everyday tasks, the fan noise is almost silent, but it becomes louder under heavy loads, though still quieter than Intel and AMD processors.
WindowsCentral reported that under heavy load, temperatures hover around 107 degrees F (41.6 degrees C), which is somewhat higher.
These are the early reviews of the Snapdragon X Elite. Keep in mind that each OEM configures the Qualcomm PC chipset uniquely, balancing performance, battery life, and thermal management. We look forward to testing a Snapdragon X Elite laptop in India and will share detailed results. Stay tuned!
