For as long as I can remember, Microsoft and Intel have been inseparable partners. Intel made the x86 chips that were the heart of the computer motherboard, and Microsoft made the Windows operating system that ran on those computers. In fact, the two brands matched each other so perfectly that industry analysts conflated them into one word: Wintel.
Over the past three decades, competitors have made brief challenges to Intel’s place at the top of the CPU heap. Most have a market share that is almost too small to measure – can you name a PC built with a Via processor? The most successful rival, AMD, has managed to reach a PC market share of roughly 20% by appealing to gamers and other performance-focused buyers.
Also: I saw the future of AI at Qualcomm headquarters, and the Copilot+ computers were just the beginning
But the introduction of the Snapdragon X series from Qualcomm has the potential to completely turn the game board.
In my review of the cheapest Surface Pro 11 configuration, I summed it up in four words: “This machine is absolutely awesome.” I’m writing this article on the same Surface Pro 11 I described in this article, and I have no intention of going back to my old Intel-based machine.
And lest you think I’m an outlier, let me highlight some of the reviews my colleagues have posted about the new crop of Snapdragon X PCs.
Zach Bowden, who reviews the Surface Laptop 7 on Windows Central, calls it “the best clamshell laptop on the market,” adding that battery life on the high-end 15-inch model he tested was “no more than phenomenal’.
At PC World, Chris Hoffman called the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X “a showcase for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite hardware.” He also highlighted the “amazing battery life” that the Arm architecture made possible.
Also: I tested HP’s OmniBook X Copilot+ PC, and it pretty much converted me to a Windows on ARM believer
And over at Engadget, Devindra Hardawar showed visible relief in his review of the Surface Pro 11. Microsoft’s latest model is “the best Surface tablet ever made,” he wrote, adding, “Microsoft finally made a Surface tablet powered by hand that I don’t want to throw myself out of the window.”
They’re all seasoned, slightly jaded reviewers who aren’t afraid to tell Microsoft when they’re wrong. And they say nothing of the sort.
In fact, the only negative review I could find of these next-gen Windows PCs was from Wired, where Christopher Null called the Surface Pro 11 “horribly expensive” while praising the device’s “great battery life.”
The first benchmark tests also provide some powerful backups for Qualcomm’s hardware. Tom’s Guide published a detailed review and concluded that “Snapdragon X Elite laptops offer excellent performance and (potentially) strong battery life… [I]It’s safe to say Qualcomm has Apple and Intel on their toes.” The only weak spot, they noted, is in gaming.
Also: How we’re testing laptops at ZDNET in 2024
If I were the CEO of Intel, I’d be sweating bullets. Hand-based designs are clearly superior on the desktop right now, and they’re becoming a thing in data centers as well, with serious power consumption advantages that are compelling in the age of AI. Intel can probably survive on momentum for a while, but the Snapdragon X processors will really expose their weaknesses in a way that hasn’t been seen before on the PC side.
If you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, I’ve seen that movie,” you’re right.
It’s the same bad meltdown that happened to Intel four years ago when Apple launched its new MacBook lines powered by M1 processors. There, too, the new Arm-based generation of Apple-branded laptops won high praise for battery life and performance, but some reviewers were still skeptical, like the folks at Macworld, who got epically upset with their “Should I buy an M1 Mac? “
On its website, Apple goes out of its way to reduce the performance of these Intel-based machines. You may still be able to find an Intel-based Mac on Apple.com, but I had no luck when I went looking.
Also: Best laptops of 2024: Tested and reviewed
Apple, of course, had one big advantage when it decided to file for divorce from Intel. It is the only hardware vendor that works with MacOS. The computer market is much more diverse. If you were to try to describe today’s Wintel relationship in social media terms, you would simply say, “It’s complicated.”
And this will end up being Intel’s lifeline on the Windows side. Qualcomm will take a huge chunk of market share from Intel, but a notoriously conservative population of business buyers will likely shy away from Qualcomm’s untested platform with its compatibility question marks. All these legacy applications designed to run on Intel hardware will be a powerful motivator for enterprise buyers. Gamers are also likely to remain loyal to the older platform and its guaranteed high frame rates.
But the pressure is certainly on Intel. They haven’t had serious competition in decades. And we haven’t even talked about what happens when Nvidia decides to add SoCs to its GPU hegemony.
Also: The best 2-in-1 work laptop I’ve tested isn’t from Lenovo or HP
In a Slack chat last month, my colleague Jason Perlow predicted that x86 will never go away, but there’s no doubt that the architecture has reached the end of its productive lifespan. The question now is whether Intel has the technical capabilities to start innovating in Arm. Because if he can’t come up with a “Qualcomm killer” soon, then it’s game over.
Just ask anyone who uses a modern MacBook.
