Intel and Qualcomm have very different approaches to the PC world. While one is pushing the performance of its new processors, the other is slimming down its chips to make cheaper computers. Here’s what’s coming soon.
Two days before the opening of the IFA show in Berlin, Intel unveiled its new Lunar Lake processors (Core Ultra 200 series), designed for laptops and boosted for artificial intelligence functions. Its new rival in this sector, Qualcomm, followed suit the next day by presenting a lightweight version of its processor under ARM Snapdragon X Elite architecture, the X Elite Plus. A question then arose: that of the prices. On paper, the Lunar Lake indeed offers performances quite superior to the previous Core Ultra and especially a very solid autonomy (over 20 hours). For its part, the new Snapdragon, amputated of two cores, is supposed to maintain good performances on the NPU part while lowering the final price of the PC. The answer was not long in coming. The major manufacturers present or not at the show have already drawn their new laptops powered by one or the other of the American processors that should arrive on the shelves at the end of September. Here is a brief overview of the situation with three major laptop manufacturers.
Intel’s Core Ultra 2s Drive Up PC Prices
At Asus, Intel’s new chip will first find its place in a ZenBook S14. A 14-inch ultra-portable equipped with a Core Ultra 7. Its price starts at 1599 euros for the launch all the same. As a reminder, the first ZenBook 14 equipped with the Core Ultra 7 155H was available from 999 euros (in the 16-512 GB version) when it was launched in December 2023. To spend less, you will have to wait until the release of the VivoBook S14 scheduled for the end of November, also equipped with the Core Ultra 7 but for 1199 euros.
On the Acer side, you will have to pay at least 1199 euros for a Swift 14 AI equipped with a 14-inch touch screen and the Core Ultra 5 processor, however. A short hop from Taiwan to China brings us to Lenovo, where Intel’s Core Ultra 7 will be housed in a Yoga Slim 7i Aura Edition. A PC with a 15.3-inch IPS screen available from 1399 euros. As we can see, Intel’s new Core Ultras are still a bit more expensive than the PCs powered by Meteor Lake chips released last year.
Qualcomm Makes Copilot+ PCs More Affordable With Snapdragon X Elite Plus
Cheaper PCs stamped Copilot+: that was the promise of the smartphone and tablet chip specialist. After a first salvo of Snapdragon X Elite SoCs released last May, Qualcomm presented a lighter version shortly before the opening of the IFA. Its chip has been stripped of two cores, going from 10 to 8, and taking the name X Elite Plus – the suffix Minus would have been more appropriate… Qualcomm has however stressed that this modification does not affect the processor’s abilities to process artificial intelligence. The 45 TOPS are still there. On the other hand, the removal of two cores is felt on the final bill of PCs powered by an X Elite Plus. At Acer, this translates into the arrival of the Swift Go 14 AI billed at 999 euros.
You can even take another hundred euros off at Lenovo for an IdeaPad Slim 5x (899 euros) or stay at 999 euros for the IdeaPad Slim 5x 2-in-1 that folds 360°. Finally, at Asus, it’s the VivoBook S15 that has an X Elite Plus processor for 999 euros (300 euros less than the previous X Elite model). As you can see, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite Plus generally places PCs equipped with it at the same prices as laptops powered by Intel Core Ultra Meteor Lake processors released a few months ago. All that remains is to see if the battery life remains there and if the performance, beyond the processing of artificial intelligence, does not suffer too much from the removal of two cores.