Qualcomm is making waves with a new set of fun, lighthearted ads aimed at Intel. These ads claim that Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite processor is much faster than Intel’s upcoming Lunar Lake chips, especially when running on battery power. But while the ads are entertaining, there’s more going on behind the scenes.
Snapdragon X Elite vs Lunar Lake: The Performance Debate
The Snapdragon X Elite was supposed to be a big deal for Windows laptops. Qualcomm promised Apple-level performance, with longer battery life and smooth speed. The chip did not entirely disappoint in this regard. Despite the software issues and high laptop prices that users had to deal with earlier on, the chip is powerful and battery-friendly.
Then came Intel’s Lunar Lake processors, and they made things harder for Qualcomm. Even though Lunar Lake chips don’t have as many cores as Snapdragon X Elite, they still do well in real-world use. They handle everyday tasks like browsing and office work smoothly, and also give solid battery life.
Qualcomm didn’t take this lightly. In their recent ads, they claim Intel’s chips slow down to just 55% of their performance when not plugged in. They say Snapdragon X Elite keeps running at full speed even on battery power. That sounds like a huge win, right? Well, that is not entirely the case.
Marketing claims vs real-world results
Taking a close look at the details of the ads, Qualcomm’s tests had a few problems. Firstly, the numbers are from Geekbench 6.2, which is not a very demanding test. It also does not show the full picture of how a processor performs.
In fact, both chips—Intel’s and Qualcomm’s—actually performed almost the same in this test. Also, during more detailed testing, the Intel-powered Dell laptop only lost about 9% of CPU power and 3% of GPU power when unplugged. That’s far from the 55% Qualcomm claimed. The Snapdragon-powered Dell laptop did hold its speed better, but not by a huge margin.
So yes, Qualcomm’s chip is fast and does well on battery. But the 55% claim in the ads seems exaggerated.
