Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) vs X2 Elite (X2E-88-100) and (X2E-80-100)

Qualcomm just wrapped up its Snapdragon summit in Hawaii and the global highlights summit in India. I got a chance to attend the Global Highlight Summit, which was held in Goa, where Snapdragon announced its products for India.

In the event Qualcomm has unveiled Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for mobile phones and latest Snapdragon X2 Elite processors for desktop computers, this time, the X Elite series comes in three variations, with a new X Elite extreme edition, and higher-end X2 Elite, and a low-end version of X2 Elite.

• X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)
• X2 Elite (X2E-88-100)
• X2 Elite (X2E-80-100)

Qualcomm has been the market leader in terms of smartphone processors; in fact, it is currently the number one brand in the premium smartphone chipset market in India, and number two globally. However, things aren’t easy when it comes to the desktop. After Apple’s successful silicon transition, Windows has also ramped up Windows on Arm, and I have gotten to review some of them.

The biggest upgrade for Windows on Arm laptops with an Arm is battery life, and the best part is that, unlike Mac, you have a choice on Windows; you have the flexibility to choose between power and battery. Laptops with Snapdragon X Elite processors offered great battery life, while Intel X86 has remained the go-to option for people looking for raw power.

However, this year things might change slightly. Qualcomm claims huge performance upgrades and efficiency with its latest X2 Elite processors. These processors will arrive in the market later this year. In this guide, let’s learn about the differences between the Snapdragon X2 Elite and the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme edition.

To help you out, Snapdragon X2 Elite and Snapdragon X2 Elite extreme edition and higher variants of X2 Elite are almost equal; however, the extreme edition has better clock speeds for better performance. The standard X2 Elite is the lower-end processor of this lineup. Here is everything that you need to know about these processors and the differences between them.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme vs X2 Elite (CPU)

The biggest difference this year is the new Heterogeneous CPU Architecture that introduces new power Prime cores for high-performance tasks and performance cores for efficient tasks on both processors.

Unlike the X1 series, which only has the linear setup, this setup can balance power and efficiency. And the latest X2 processors, including the X2 Elite and X2 Elite extreme, are built on TSMC’s latest 3nm, promising better performance and more efficiency. Both the Snapdragon Xlite and X2 Elite extreme features Qualcomm’s latest 3rd generation Orion CPU design (Qualcomm has skipped the second generation Orion name and directly included the third generation Orion name).

The higher variant of the Snapdragon X2 Elite features an 18-core CPU architecture with 12 Prime cores clocked up to 4.7 GHz and 6 Performance cores clocked up to 3.6 GHz, and the lower variant comes in 12 cores with 6 prime and 6 performance cores with similar clock speeds.

And on the other hand, Snapdragon X Elite Extreme also has the same 18 cores. It comes with 12 Prime cores clocked up to 5 gigahertz, which is the first on any Windows on Arm processor for better performance, and also better multitasking. Same as the X2 Elite, the six performance cores are clocked at 3.6 gigahertz.

And also, there are differences in cache and memory; the Snapdragon X2 Elite lower end has a smaller L3 cache compared to the X2 Elite Extreme. The X2 Elite Extreme comes with 48 megabytes of shared cache memory.

Since these processors are coming later this year, we don’t have real-world benchmarks to test these remarks, but as per Qualcomm’s claims, this translates to a 39% increase in performance in single-core and a whopping 50% increase in multi-core performance.

Wait, X2 Elite Extreme is not the fastest laptop CPU in the world.
The M4 Max already beats the X2 Elite Extreme in Cinebench 2024 in a retail laptop.

This is why one shouldn’t look at clock speeds alone.

X2 Extreme:
ST: 162
MT: 1968

M4 Max:
ST: 179
MT: 2025 pic.twitter.com/sRNTknM4no

— ExoticSpice (@ExoticSpice101) September 24, 2025

However, according to some users, the Apple M4 Max processor still beats the X Elite in single and multicore performance. We need to wait until the real-world data to determine.

In comparison, because of the higher clock speeds and memory setup on the Snapdragon xe lite etrema, it will perform better than the regular X2 elite, essentially in more challenging tasks; however, the exact performance difference is yet to be found. For now, according to the specs on the paper, Snapdragon X Elite Extreme should be faster.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme vs X2 Elite (GPU)

GPU performance has been the weakest on the Snapdragon X Elite when compared to Intel’s Arc GPU, and it also has limited game compatibility. While Qualcomm hasn’t talked about compatibility improvement, it promises an update to 2x GPU performance when compared to last year. The new Snapdragon X2 Elite features Adreno X2-90 GPU, and the Snapdragon X2 Elite lower-end variant features X2-85.

And again, we don’t have real-world data to determine the exact performance difference. However, considering the paper specifications, Snapdragon H2 Elite should be slightly faster than X2 Elite (lower version).

Qualcomm has also demonstrated games like Fortnite running at 60fps on medium settings, and for the first time, it has partnered with Epic to include an anti-cheat collaboration system to improve compatibility. There is no official information about availability, but Qualcomm claims over 1400 games are optimized for the Snapdragon, including AAA titles.

However, in the majority of uses, X86 games on X2 Elite processors might only run with the help of emulation on ARM processors, which does not bring the same performance as running the games natively on Windows systems. However, we should see how optimized Qualcomm processors have done to support better.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme vs X2 Elite (NPU)

AI also gets a big performance upgrade, moving from 45 TOPs to nearly 80 TOPs, which makes it better suited for handling all AI tasks.

In fact, it is the largest number found on any laptop with this scale of support for AI. This does translate to better AI performance on the laptop and also gets better AI for most of the AI tasks, and might also support device models for better privacy. All three variants can feature up to 80 TOPS, which can offer almost similar AI performance with extreme edition leading with better memory bandwidth.

And again, similar to CPU and GPU performances, we don’t have real-world testing data; however, 80 TOPs is definitely an impressive number.

In comparison, here is how it compares against its competitors.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme vs X2 Elite – Battery Life

Windows on Arm has always been about battery life, and in our testing, it produced the best battery life on a Windows laptop so far. Qualcomm claims up to 31% faster CPU performance at the same power and about 43% lower power usage at the same performance compared to the first-generation X Elite processor, which is incredible considering that the existing X Elite is a battery champion.

All three processors are expected to offer the best battery life, and X2 Elite (X2E-80-100), a lower energy variant, which can offer better battery life.

So what does this translate to in the real world? You can expect around 20 to 25 hours of battery life on a single charge, with even better performance. And again, we don’t have real-life test results to test these claims in the real world, but with our experience with the Snapdragon X Elite on the Vivo book that we have tested, this could result in even better battery performance numbers.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme vs X2 Elite – Compatibility

The big downside of Windows on Arm on Snapdragon X Elite processors is software and app compatibility. Qualcomm is trying hard to bring as many native apps to Windows as possible, as part of Microsoft’s push to Windows on Arm, but plenty of mainstream software doesn’t support Arm, which also includes games.

If you want to look at the detailed compatibility of these apps, you can visit this website, which also includes popular apps like Adobe and all. Still, however, compatibility is going to remain an issue, and hopefully, with Qualcomm’s better push with the help of Microsoft, we can expect more apps and software to be natively compatible on Windows very soon.

So those are the key factors that the Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite processor excels in and also brings several upgrades. Well, Qualcomm claims these processors are built for ultra-premium Windows laptops, so we can expect a higher price, which is also one of the concerns of Windows on Arm.

OEMs are expected to launch PCs with these processors in the coming days, including HP, Asus, and others, so we should get the real-world benchmarks and the data once we get our hands on any of these processors in the wild.

This guide highlights of primary differences and what you are going to get, and what the upgrades Qualcomm has made to the existing X Elite to compete against Mac. Still, we should see how these will translate to the real-world performance to conclude.

Here are the differences between the Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme, and also a comparison. I hope this guide has helped you get a basic idea of what you can expect since these are coming later this year. Stay tuned to TechPP for more upgrades.

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