CheckMag | Cheaper ARM laptop chips could be a really big deal

It is no secret that low-end Intel and AMD laptop chips are far from impressive by modern standards.

Let's just take a look at a current entry-level laptop CPU from Intel, the Intel Core 3 100U. In Geekbench 6, it scores around 5,800 points, which is well below the Apple M1 and actually on par with many current smartphone chips. With this kind of multi-core performance, the Intel Core 3 100U is not well-suited for any sort of modern productivity tasks. No, Windows 11 laptops powered by the Core 3 will not really feel sluggish as the 100U has a single-core Geekbench score of around 1,900 points. The quad-core Ryzen 3 7320U delivers just around 1,200 points, for comparison. But neither is your best bet for anything but the most basic day-to-day things.

To add insult to injury, lower-end laptops do not always feature the most advanced cooling solutions, which is why they are often both louder and hotter than higher-end x86 laptops. They are just not up to snuff when it comes to delivering a good all-around user experience.

With the above in mind, let us embrace an overlooked newcomer to this stagnating market segment: The Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100. First laptops with the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 are beginning to arrive; the ASUS Vivobook S 15 built around the chip is already shipping. Time and reviewers will tell if this lower-price octa-core SoC is any good, but the prospect of highly capable and inexpensive laptop ARM chips is quite exciting.

Qualcomm's higher-end chips are not that compelling because they do not at all offer a massive boost in performance or power efficiency over the current Intel and AMD offerings to become a smashing success like Apple's M-series chips did. Instead of chasing that lost cause, Qualcomm should focus on the low-end and mid-range segments; this is where there is an opening for it to act right now. If Qualcomm delivers just one or two fast enough, highly energy-efficient chips for mid-range and low-end laptops, then the company will be able to pull off a true ARM revolution in the Windows world, totally comparable to what Apple did with laptops four years ago. Not even the sky will be the limit for Windows on ARM if this happens.

In any event, the ARM-powered Dell XPS 13 which happens to be one of the best Windows 11 devices can be had directly from Dell USA starting from $1,299 right now.