Qualcomm accused of misleading test results of new processors for Windows laptops Snapdragon X Elite and Plus. These chips are positioned as the first potentially competitive Windows on Arm processors compared to Apple, Intel, and AMD products. However, the website SemiAccurate claims that Qualcomm and its partners did not actually achieve the test results presented to the press.
Qualcomm sources say that at least two major OEMs were unable to reproduce the test results provided by Qualcomm in their devices. The company has not yet commented on the situation at the request of the site.
At the Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit conference, the public saw the first tests of the upcoming X Elite processors. Their results, which according to sources are «net», were worse than expected. Qualcomm claims that the software used was not the final one. Also, the tests were a complete «black box» — no one at the conference could see the settings used for testing, and the vague charts showing performance in comparison to competitors Apple and Intel could not be verified.
After OEMs received the X-series processors, sources say none of them were able to reproduce Qualcomm’s advertised test results. In fact, the original equipment manufacturers saw numbers that were «much less than 50%» of the results claimed by Qualcomm. Allegedly, Qualcomm engineers reported that poor Windows optimization for Arm and poor laptop cooling were to blame. Even after some time passed and the cooling could be improved, the testers did not come close to Qualcomm’s benchmarks. One source compared the Snapdragon X Elite to Intel Celeron processors.
At the Snapdragon summit, the company avoided answering technical questions about its upcoming X series and promised more answers and detailed technical briefings before the release of its chips. Also, reviewers were promised the opportunity to test the processors themselves before release. So far, none of these promises have been realized — although there is still time before the chips launch in mid-2024. The press was able to test the devices at hands-on events, but all the software was pre-installed and configured.
Qualcomm information, published yesterdayThe company talks about potential camera specifications and so on, but does not provide enough in-depth technical information. We know the number of cores, the size of the cache, and the clock speed, but there is nothing deeper than the specifications.
To output of laptops it is difficult to find confirmation of these allegations or Qualcomm’s words. It is expected that Microsoft to make announcements on Windows on Arm at the Build developer conference in May that could shed more light on this issue.