Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6: Qualcomm has the wrong focus with the Snapdragon X Elite

When Lenovo released the ThinkPad X13s with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 in 2022, the advantage of this system was clear: The X13s was fanless, just like Apple's MacBook Air. Different from the Apple system, however, the ThinkPad was not fast enough to be viable compared with other laptops.

This is not the case with the Snapdragon X Elite. The newest Qualcomm processor, which is supposed to finally bring Windows on ARM out of the niche, is much faster and still more efficient than current Intel CPUs - especially with low power limits.

One might think: This CPU is ideal for a fanless system. But this does not hold true: All new Snapdragon laptops contain an active cooling system. Qualcomm lets the X Elite consume up to 80 W, too much for a passive system.

Having a fan might still be OK, if the ARM laptops at least stayed quiet. Unfortunately, not even that is the case, as our recent, comprehensive review of the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 shows. In comparison with the similar ThinkPad T14s Gen 5 with Intel processor, the T14s G6 runs louder under load. Even worse, the Qualcomm ThinkPad also runs hotter than the Intel one.

The Snapdragon X Elite achieves an amazing battery endurance, but it would be great if Qualcomm also used its efficiency advantage when it comes to the heat and noise output. It seems to us that Qualcomm optimized too much for performance, forgetting about what actually makes using the system great for users. Especially for a business laptop like the ThinkPad, focusing too much on performance is not really the best choice.