Examined: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite is quicker, however the battery life hit is actual

[ad_1]

A 140-watt charger. As quickly as I pulled the Asus Zenbook A16 with from its field, with Qualcomm’s newest Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive X2E94100 chip inside, I knew that efficiency was going to be the precedence right here. Battery life might be a secondary purpose.

And that’s true, to an extent. My first take a look at Qualcomm’s second-generation Home windows on Arm platform, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive, exhibits me that it desires to amp up the processing energy to push productiveness duties extra rapidly. Qualcomm appears keen to sacrifice among the platform’s battery life as an alternative.

I’m nonetheless testing the Asus Zenbook A16, with a watch towards two key axes in productiveness laptops, that are battery life and efficiency. I really feel extra assured in addressing the primary side (battery life) utilizing our personal Netflix video streaming benchmark. And you already know what? Qualcomm’s newest pocket book chip isn’t unhealthy, however its predecessor was higher.

Searching for a greater battery take a look at

In February, I started testing consultant laptops for battery life whereas streaming One Piece, an epic Japanese anime, on the Netflix streaming service, as a approach to offer a greater battery benchmark.

I’ve by no means been fairly pleased with how battery life is examined on laptops. Laptop computer producers usually dim the laptop computer display screen to mild ranges which might be far darker than most individuals would ever use, then loop a benchmark again and again till the battery runs down. We flip the display screen brightness as much as ranges we expect most customers would use, for starters. Our battery exams have additionally developed.

We’ll use benchmarks that attempt to reproduce workplace duties, in addition to merely looping a film again and again. That final take a look at is what we historically considered a “true” battery take a look at, watching film after film on a global flight.

<img decoding="async" data-wp-class--hide="state.isContentHidden" data-wp-class--show="state.isContentVisible" data-wp-init="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async--click="actions.showLightbox" data-wp-on-async--load="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async-window--resize="callbacks.setButtonStyles" src="https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/cat-and-PC-edit.jpg?quality=50&strip=all&w=1200" alt="Asus ZenBook A18 Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite" class="wp-image-3119504" width="1200" height="900" loading="lazy" /> Usually, your laptop computer sleeps in your bag all day — like this cat. However you get a greater sense of battery life if it’s always in motion. Mark Hachman / Foundry

Now, the definition has modified. Watching a film means streaming a film moderately than simply recording and downloading video. That engages the display screen, the wi-fi radio, and the CPU, unexpectedly. I used One Piece as a metric as a result of the collection has tons of episodes, engages all the elements I’m enthusiastic about, and is enjoyable.

We’ll take a unique take a look at the difficulty — pure productiveness versus battery life — in a follow-up story. However for now, let’s preserve it easy.

For comparability, I used the Asus Zenbook A16 with a Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive (X2E94100) inside it, Qualcomm’s second most-powerful Elite Excessive chip. Inside are 12 Prime cores and 6 efficiency cores, all operating at a prime velocity of 4.7GHz. (Qualcomm put all the specs on this PDF doc.)

<img decoding="async" data-wp-class--hide="state.isContentHidden" data-wp-class--show="state.isContentVisible" data-wp-init="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async--click="actions.showLightbox" data-wp-on-async--load="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async-window--resize="callbacks.setButtonStyles" src="https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/Intel-Panther-Lake-primary-edit.png?w=1200" alt="Intel Core Ultra Series 3 Panther Lake primary edit" class="wp-image-3041880" width="1200" height="912" loading="lazy" /> Intel’s Panther Lake demo laptop computer “cheated” by including an infinite 99Wh battery, hidden away behind these twin shows. Mark Hachman / Foundry

To that, we add:

Asus Zenbook S16 (AMD Ryzen AI 9 365, 2880×1800 show, and 78Wh battery) (Notice: Our authentic platform take a look at used a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 as an alternative.)

Asus Zenbook Duo (Intel Core Extremely X9 388H, 2880×1800 show, and 99Wh battery)

Asus Zenbook S 14 (Intel Core Extremely 7 258V, 2880×1800 show, and 72Wh battery)

Microsoft Floor Laptop computer 7 (Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, 2304×1536 show, and 54Wh battery)

The sequel ain’t pretty much as good as the unique

We then set the laptops to a hard and fast brightness, started streaming One Piece, and walked away. We used Home windows to inform us when the battery ran down. With the Asus Zenbook A16 with the Snapdragon X2 Elite Excessive chip, it labored out to 13 hours 4 minutes. The highest performer, the Asus Zenbook Duo with Intel’s Core Extremely 300 (Panther Lake), lasted about 16.5 hours.

<img decoding="async" data-wp-class--hide="state.isContentHidden" data-wp-class--show="state.isContentVisible" data-wp-init="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async--click="actions.showLightbox" data-wp-on-async--load="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async-window--resize="callbacks.setButtonStyles" src="https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/One-Piece-Battery-Life-Qualcomm-Snapdragon-X2-Elite-Extreme.png?w=1200" alt="One Piece Battery Life Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme" class="wp-image-3119443" width="1200" height="575" loading="lazy" /> Mark Hachman / Foundry

On the face of it, Qualcomm’s newest chip contained in the Asus laptop computer doesn’t carry out all that nicely, ending close to the underside of the heap close to AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 processor, which additionally emphasised efficiency as a lot as the rest. However the numbers don’t inform the complete story.

We will solely evaluate what a laptop computer producer gives us. However one of many methods that Intel pulled with its Core Extremely 300 collection laptops (“Panther Lake”) was to bundle a 99Wh battery inside. That’s the utmost dimension allowed by the Federal Aviation Administration to be used on planes. Clearly, a smaller battery received’t ship as a lot battery life. Then again, a smaller battery means much less weight.

Only for enjoyable, I divided the battery life by the capability in watt-hours to reach on the energy effectivity of the person laptop computer processors. It’s an summary quantity, although it does inform us one factor. If a laptop computer maker had created a laptop computer with a 99Wh battery paired with a Snapdragon X Elite, that will have been one thing to behold.

<img decoding="async" data-wp-class--hide="state.isContentHidden" data-wp-class--show="state.isContentVisible" data-wp-init="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async--click="actions.showLightbox" data-wp-on-async--load="callbacks.setButtonStyles" data-wp-on-async-window--resize="callbacks.setButtonStyles" src="https://b2c-contenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/One-Piece-battery-life-Quacomm-Snapdragon-X2-Elite-Extreme-efficiency.png?w=1200" alt="One Piece battery life Quacomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme efficiency" class="wp-image-3119444" width="1200" height="503" loading="lazy" /> Mark Hachman / Foundry

In sensible phrases, streaming for over 13 hours remains to be an accomplishment. That’s a flight from San Francisco to Taipei in a seat the place the ability outlet doesn’t work. Battery life might not be as vital in a world with almost ubiquitous energy, however any saved battery energy can also be consumed way more readily by always-on radios in a world of ubiquitous connectivity.

Qualcomm seems to have adjusted its design targets for its second-generation processor. It’s nonetheless fairly efficient, however I’d nonetheless advocate a first-generation Snapdragon X Elite laptop computer in case you’re searching for probably the most power-efficient processor obtainable within the productiveness PC house.