Snapdragon X Elite 2: New rumour predicts up to a 22% performance uplift

So far, information about Qualcomm's next-gen laptop SoCs has been sparse. One report said the Snapdragon X Elite 2 (or Snapdragon X2 Elite) would launch with 18 CPU cores, while another said it would launch in October, with wider availability kicking off in 2026. A new leak from a trusted Weibo blogger, Fixed Focus Digital (via Jukanlosreve on X) sheds some light on its CPU clocks.

Apparently, the Snapdragon X Elite 2/Snapdragon X2 Elite's Nuvia-based CPU's boost clocks will start at 4.4 GHz. This means they could go higher, maybe even up to 5.0 GHz under some workloads. In contrast, the top-spec Snapdragon X Elite model (X1E-84-100) could boost between 3.8 GHz and 4.4 GHz. The leak further adds, this will result in an 18-22% performance improvement.

A clock speed bump alone might not be enough to get the performance improvement listed above. The first-gen Snapdragon X Elite was made on TSMC's N4P node, and the next-gen Snapdragon X2 Elite/Snapdragon X Elite 2 might use N3P. Some opine it could be N2P, but that would mean it won't be ready to hit shelves until 2026.

Raw performance notwithstanding, Qualcomm's main problem with the Snapdragon X Elite has been software support, to the point where some laptops using the chips got a "frequently returned item" tag on Amazon. But Qualcomm isn't entirely at fault here because many of the issues stem from the Windows-on-Arm platform.