Snapdragon X Elite is Finally a TRUE M3 MacBook Killer?!

[@MaxTechOfficial]

Surface Laptop 7 with X Elite ($1400) ➡ geni.us/LtjLsad M3 MacBook Air 13" (only $900) ➡ geni.us/NmOB

[@mikapeltokorpi7671]

If you compare both with same RAM and SSD, M3 MacBook Air is $300 more expensive.

[@mrstuartrobertson]

UK Prices 8G 512Storage M3 MA £1299, 16G 512Stor £1499...... 10 core Surface plus 16G 512Stor £1249, 12 core surface elite 16G 512Stor £1449

[@2xtreem4u]

@@mrstuartrobertson Surface plus about the same in sweden macbook is cheaper

[@vishals7433]

M3 at 900n

[@skyak4493]

@@mikapeltokorpi7671 That is not true! I am looking at the Amazon listing and MBA with 16/512 is $1329 -still cheaper!

[@johnmclaughlin8877]

If the new Qualcomm laptops do nothing more than force Apple to have 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD as a minimum then they'll have been worthwhile. Apple's been offering similar base specs for around 10 years which is nothing less than disgraceful.

[@koenignero]

MacOS does not need 16GB, Windows does.

[@predator9909]

@@koenignero that's bs from apple

[@ahaimes6320]

This base MB Air is about $400-500 less than the Surface Laptop, so I need clarification about what you say. Apple offers people who cannot afford $1400 for the Surface Laptop an MB Air at less than $1000! Why would you hate that? If you want the 16GB/512GB version, it is about the same price as this Surface Laptop ATM! Not at all sure what you are on about?

[@AdamGamingARK]

@@koenignero that's not true, try editing with.a macbook with only 1gb free of storage for example and see if 8gb is enough it uses a part of my storage to reduce the lack of ram it has, so if you don't have enough storage premiere pro will crash the macbook thinking that 8gb is enough in 2024 and supporting it is crazy

[@adityajoglekar7873]

​@@koenignero this is such a crock of shit macOS by itself consumes 4-5 gigs of ram

[@suiixadedravtextsu9886]

Remember that this is Apple's 3rd Gen silicon chips while Snapdragon X Elite is first Gen. I'm excited to see future generation chips. Competition is looking juicy!

[@zacmullins7811]

except its not, you have the Sanpdragon 820 which was arm based, the 835, many 800 series ARM processors (888, 865, 801), the 8 plus, and many more. They also did the SQ1,SQ2, SQ3 arm processors

[@rowaystarco]

@@zacmullins7811 That's like saying the A-chips from Apple are the first gen chips. These new chips are built somewhat differently, they are based on the work that Nuvia did (former Apple engineers).

[@andrewchee9235]

​@zacmullins7811 it is 1st gen. Cause oryon cores are new. 1st gen. It compares to Apple's 3rd gen. So oryon 2nd gen equals Apple's 6gen? 😂

[@PB72UK]

@@andrewchee9235you cant really compare gens like this , the m1 came out 3 years ago .. so your comparing apples to oranges , if both gen1s were coming out at the same time thats the only fair comparison really 🤷🏼‍♂️ … i wouldn’t compare apples first gen to intel’s first gen i7 for example as that is just not fair as time and technology changes constantly.

[@Mrorlgloth]

​@@zacmullins7811 well Apple has Apple Bionic A11,A12,A13 too 😂 Oryon was Costom core ARM chipset like Apple M series .

[@37royal]

Surface starts at 16 GB of ram , Apple really needs to keep up with specs.

[@eys3d358]

Honestly the thing is, because Mac OS is insanely optimized, it doesnt really need lots of ram, this also applies to iphones and IOS, Apple’s OS requires less ram because they use a different method of keeping backround apps and mostly because most app developers prioritize Apple products which means majority of applications on Macbook require less ram to run due to optimization

[@vmafarah9473]

@@eys3d358 cope. just watch the video of maxtech on 8gb vs 16gb and talk.

[@RivandaBakhtiar]

No, I was using 15” air with 8gb of ram, and opening several tabs and excell and its lagging so bad

[@rishinarang9966]

​@@eys3d358 it doesnt optimize to the extent where 16gb windows = 8gb mac.

[@TheosTechTips]

I hope this comparison gets Apple to start improving their specs.

[@rodneyturnerphoto]

Developers are going to make this chip shine. Great competition for the market. Would love to see a desktop variant and unleash even more performance.

[@TheObserver__]

There will now be no comment- "now test it when unplugged".

[@joelmatngandu]

What a time to be alive man ! The consumers are winning

[@muhammadragilsaputra3067]

But yeah THAT'S the point of using LAPTOP not a PC DESKTOP.

[@Space97.]

Real lmao 😂

[@Space97.]

​​​​​@@muhammadragilsaputra3067yup but keep in mind laptops are mobile devices and as such need a mobile first architecture for better use such as "arm" not a desktop focus one like "x86" that is not good for power drain at all when on battery and loses almost half of performance unplugged (sometimes more)

[@fdrodreeguez20]

I can't wait for the day where Apple gets rid of that camera notch on the MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs.

[@martingifford5415]

I use a black background so I never see the notch.

[@fdrodreeguez20]

@@martingifford5415 That's true I forgot you can simply do that too. But I've seen issues with some softwares not being optimized correctly and either things go behind it and you can't see to click or it looks bad.

[@martingifford5415]

@@fdrodreeguez20 Yes. It works best on the default resolution, which might not suit everybody.

[@shableep]

I legit don’t want a Mac because of that ridiculous notch. It’s just so inconsistent and odd. The cursor has to move strangely through it, the menu bar can’t reach across the screen any more. Full screen is not full screen. It doesn’t include face ID and has no reason to be as large as it is. They could have optimized the web cams to fit in the bezel. Just truly strange and disappointing. Apple makes a lot of good decisions. This is not one of them. Also, while we’re at it, removing the headphone jack on the iPad. Why? They have professional audio programs they made for iPad and they remove the headphone jack? Really?

[@martingifford5415]

@@shableep I literally never see or experience the notch on the default resolution with a black background.

[@downthecrop]

Webcam difference was HUGE

[@sholmes_ttyy]

Out of all the plus surface has you are pointing out this? Apple fanboy..

[@eys3d358]

@@sholmes_ttyyits still facts, the webcam on the macbook was just miles better, and before you gon start calling me an apple fanboy, no im not, im a windows user

[@TheosTechTips]

Totally agree. This was alos in studio lighting which is kind of embarrassing for the surface.

[@ckhomphzxspaul8455]

@@sholmes_ttyy you really is a color blind Microsoft fanboy though. 😂😂😂 Check your eyes.

[@TheosTechTips]

@@sholmes_ttyy He's just pointing out a big difference between the laptops. Doesn't mean he's a fanboy lol.

[@Sacto1654]

I agree, but only after Microsoft gets everyone to port their Windows applications to run in the native mode of the X Elite SoC. And that could take about 2-3 years. This is why Adobe ported their Creative Suite tools to run in X Elite native mode.

[@FallingESP]

This shows how ahead were Apple in 2020 when they release their silicon. The competence needed almost 5 years to start doing something.

[@Jan-NiklasSommer1]

They just scaled up their iPhone Chips so they already worked for years on it

[@guyarnaultmfoumbi8876]

Qualcomm achieves this because they bought the company created by former Apple ingeneurs. Otherwise nothing happened. Even then they are still behind

[@eulehund99]

​@@guyarnaultmfoumbi8876bro has never heard of NDAs 💀

[@michi9816]

@@Jan-NiklasSommer1same with snapdragons

[@fidelisitor8953]

Well Apple simply took their iphone bionic chips and threw in more cores and more power to make Apple silicon so it's nothing spectacular.

[@mikehawk7307]

I am glad that Apple finally has competition. Now maybe they will go down on the price tag. These prices are out of control.

[@strictnonconformist7369]

MS developer support engineer here, I do cross-platform support and own both Macs and PCs. I was fascinated with the report the Surface was only at 70-something percent CPU usage during the down-clocking. That likely means it was down-clocked to save power used by the CPU while something else was being waited on by the CPU. I don’t know if it was constrained by non-CPU core SoC hardware, which it might have been, if that were the limiting factor: it might also have been waiting on memory swapping. The interesting thing to understand about memory management is you can often exchange memory efficiency for total speed, and even with swapping, if the swapping is low enough, it could still be notably faster for overall throughput: modern web browsers are far faster than older ones for this reason, running on the same hardware, at least until you have too many tabs open. A huge reason why this is true is memory fragmentation can be reduced, as once memory fragmentation gets out of hand, total memory usage and swapping go up, if you are overly concerned with attempting to keep memory usage down. I’d love to run that same test with tools I know how to use, that I’ve not seen used in such benchmarks. I’d also love to see if the performance is faster with 32 GB RAM on that test to see if it is, in fact, a memory constraint, which it could be. If it’s purely a memory constraint, all the other information becomes more a waste of time to collect and analyze. And of course, Apple still selling machines with 8GB RAM base is absurd, except for one technical point: besides the SoC power usage, the other big power users when in use are RAM and the SSD. As such, the 8GB MacBook with half the SSD can reasonably be expected to run a lot longer in practical scenarios that never push it to the processing and storage/swap limits, without a drop in performance, and will trade off a bit of total throughput for notably better battery life. However, we’re at a scenario right now where we don’t have a good way to test one of the biggest selling points of the new Copilot+ computers compared to Macs: AI. It’s unclear to me (I need to do more research) if how Apple and PC manufacturers are rating TOPS are properly comparable, and then there’s how the hardware is actually used. If they’re truly comparable, the M3 is about half that of the M4, and the M4 is a little below minimum Copilot+ requirements, though I personally suspect their numbers for minimum TOPS (40, while this new QualComm chip rates 45) is more for marketing purposes than being truly useful. Of course, the M4 in the new iPad Pro is running with no fans, 8 GB RAM, in an iPad that has less capacity to cool than a notebook even without a fan, and we know Apple will have Pro, etc., models of the M4 that I’m guessing will have more NPU capacity as one of the differentiating factors. We are firmly in the era we can have actual verbal arguments with our computers: what a time to be alive!

[@aryankhodadadi2403]

I wonder what results we’ll get two more papers down the line 😂

[@MichaelFlatman]

Sometimes with throttling Windows task manager will show lower CPU % even though the cores are still at 100%. I've had laptops throttle and task manager shows the CPU pinned at 40% for example. Really there should be some kind of update to not show the throttling like this as it is confusing and misleading to the end user.

[@johannepark]

Very soon... Apple makes a VERY special announcement for its fans. 8GB upgrade is only $150 now instead of $250 and 256GB SSD upgrade is only $150 now instead of $250!!!!

[@jackcottonbrown]

That anti reflection difference on the mac display is crazy! I've never seen a side by side comparison like that before.

[@kevinsturges6957]

For me it’s all down to the single core performance, and how an ARM cpu can run Steinberg Cubase in a studio without any latency, hitches or glitches. Planning on getting a new DAW computer a year from now. Watching all these reviews with great interest.

[@AbhishekVaid]

I find this channel way too biased with apple products. It always has been. As an example at 8:34, he says Mac is 20% faster but if you do the math, it's really 12%. That's being highly disingunous and misleading the customers in favour of product you are incredibly biased against.

[@taylor-0092]

also he sets the windows laptop to "best performance" because that's what he wants ? lol

[@shantanuvarsan4545]

This channel has always been biased. it doesn't take much to observe that.

[@SimplestUsername]

I really think you're mistaking sloppiness for deceit. Yes, he obviously likes apple products, but I've seen nothing to suggest he's intentionally misleading his audience.

[@ClaudioAguileraMunoz]

22:51 he literally praised the windows machine, the ram, the battery, the speakers and the touchscreen...

[@alexs.5107]

😅

[@leakyabstraction]

You MUST use Crab Rave for speaker testing

[@fidelisitor8953]

Alex approves of this

[@daviddaley4715]

Just FYI, I believe you made a mistake when comparing Geekbench scores... You said M3 was 20% faster for single core but it was only 12% faster. I've also noticed anytime a Mac has a higher score you tend to pretty generously round up the percentile difference, but if a Mac loses you almost always give the exact %. Just an observation, not a big deal.

[@FahadAhmadi]

I also noticed that, I think this comparison is not fair and give misleading information

[@TheJoseUrena]

Yeah, more rigged than the world cup

[@kenwakeyboard]

mac paychecks came through.

[@priyanshuvettori5179]

He is a mac fan and personally want the mac to win from his heart, I don't know where people get the idea that apple care enough to give him a paycheck

[@bongapd]

I think it's with any Apple product. I always find the reviews biased favouring Apple all the time i.e. the SSD write speeds were 2135 Mac and 2515 SD elite and it's quoted as ahead not by much but which is literally 15.1% and when the Mac is higher by 5% elsewhere its big deal. The high res image with the woman's face early in video loaded almost twice faster than the mac but still quoted as only slight. I wanna like this channels videos cause they recorded well and nicely presented but the biases just leave a sour taste all the time. I mean we are allowed to like products just cause we like that but don't fake the science to prove them to be better where they aren't. I am a Mac and Android use cause I just like tech for what it can do for me. I guess I am not a brand loyalist. I appreciate advancements in tech. I am glad though that in this you do still highlight that the surface is still good in many way and can be recommended for those looking for Windows based laptops. Just would be nice if there weren't obvious biased statements.

[@moimtz]

In laptops it is undeniable that everyone is copying Apple.

[@TheosTechTips]

It's the same in the whole industry. Remember the headphone jack?

[@moimtz]

@@TheosTechTips Yeah true

[@mschf09]

Everyone copies everyone in the industry this isn't exclusive to Apple

[@josephle2381]

No one is copying apples soldered SSD and WiFi card and only 2 usb c ports 🤣🤣🤣

[@miracletraveler2835]

@@josephle2381intel has joined the chat

[@MycketKar]

Does this mean we're going to see more 4 squares in cafes? I'll still wait in getting one.

[@Äpple-pie-5k]

@@HenryBloggit it's making a comeback... I did see a four-square in a cafe too. Still greatly outnumbered by Macs and x86 DELLs though.

[@julianvtr007]

apple is 4 years ahead, x elite is the first real PC chip from qualcomm. snapdragon 8cx was a phone soc.

[@giovanicasano]

all the more reason why i think qualcomm has done a fantastic job

[@Trph]

Is it possible that these companies copy each other? So, even though this is 1st gen, they already have m2 or m3 as a model to beat and study when creating their own. Nevertheless a very good job.. i have been waiting for windows to have the similar hardware as macs.

[@julianvtr007]

@@Trph qualcomm buy a company of ex apple employers that work on apple a12z

[@Bizmops]

no. this is not their first time. and they also the one who design the m1 chip. the x elite is a complete polished, not like a test, or whatsoever, and it does deliver what it promises beat all x86 and m3 chip for this year. and now it's all depends on windows and third party app. you don't need to wait 2nd gen. cz it probably only increase 20% better. all we need for is to wait windows and arm adapt this new x64 arm compability. getting it today, it's not a deal breaker.

[@ahmoylaw8905]

X elite chip is also designed by (ex) apple designers!!!

[@mahmoud1737]

the joy in his face for knowing that people stuck with windows can use there systems like how it should have been

[@Äpple-pie-5k]

forced by competition from Apple to finally do ARM right. It goes both ways... Mac users finally get window-snapping. Competition doing its job for everyone. And yes, because capitalism. Imagine a socialist operating system without competition driving these changes.

[@williammaverick]

​@@Äpple-pie-5k And yet macOS fails miserably with multi tasking vs Windows. MacOS is form over function... not to mention Apple tells you what YOUR laptop should feel, look and perform like rather the other way around.. exactly the reason why I would never go with the brand not to mention the annoying fanbase it has which unsurprisingly share the same characteristic as the very people in Apple have.

[@ahmedalsadi0010]

Can you try android emulation. Gaming benchmark and battery test. I think it's more interesting to investigate the Windows capabilities with the new snapdragon x elite instead of just doing regular comparison

[@TVDramaHome]

For Windows Laptops I love Surface, I’m excited to see this result compare MacBook ❤

[@neilmontgomery3470]

A very impressive start for a first gen machine considering the lack of optimisation of first party apps. Well done to Qualcomm and Microsoft and I hope these sell like hotcakes and take the fight to Apple in the laptop space.

[@itsacookie1]

Apple is the cheap option 💀

[@Zaidoesstuff]

Apple is 100$ more at base spec, and 300$ more at matched ram since the Surface starts at 16 gigs of ram

[@sameersheriff7078]

Apple is a premium product and it doesn't come cheap .

[@itsmilan4069]

yes in an alternate universe

[@skyak4493]

@@Zaidoesstuff That is a lie! Look at the Amazon link and up the specs to 16/512 the price is $1329 -still cheaper!

[@TheosTechTips]

For once lol

[@mikkovirtanen9866]

I just get my Black Surface Laptop 7 (15", 32gb/1TB) 2099usd and i have to say this is awesome laptop.

[@wesley.zago120]

man the next generation of this thing is gonna be amazing and it's gonna be interesting to see how it compares to the m4 when that comes to the macbooks

[@thebuddercweeper]

The X elite has (significantly) worse single core performance than M4 and similar multicore, while about the same amount of power as M4 Pro is likely to use. It’s definitely better than Intel and maybe AMD too, but they’re still one to two generations behind Apple.

[@fidelisitor8953]

@@thebuddercweeper M4 uses up to 30W so x elite uses just as much if not less than M4. Why do you think Apple upgraded the cooling of the M4 ipads?

[@fidelisitor8953]

Only thing lacking is single core and GPU which will definitely improve with 2nd gen.

[@thebuddercweeper]

@@fidelisitor8953 Where are you getting those numbers from?

[@M16-bf4ku]

@@thebuddercweeper buddy, it's a first gen product. It is definitely worse than the m4.... but we have to wait a few generations to see.... Apple obviously did a commendable job by going with ARM

[@soraygoularssm8669]

Webcam on macs was better but the audio recording quality if surface was way better than the mac, battery life on Mac was still better, maybe if you use the X elite lighter on battery save mode it'll be the same, both designs are awesome, I appreciate the fact that surface has a fan, still feeling bad about fan less mac book air. The performance is quite similar some times m3 is better and sometimes the x elite

[@williamcopeland2617]

It'll be interesting to see how much better the Surface performs in 90 days or so after more firmware updates come out and the ARM apps get updated and better optimized. Hell of a time to get into computers.

[@not0evn]

Windows has always had a much snappier OS experience to me. I've been using apple for the past 3 years for the battery and I'm sooo ready for competitive windows machines again

[@stephanbergmann8373]

Windows is „a much snappier OS experience“? 😂

[@samedersay8864]

Agreed, always disliked having to work with Mac devices

[@AssassinX690]

💀

[@denischiosa4496]

Same

[@mayank09pratap]

The surface laptop looks so much better especially because of the no notch.

[@ahaimes6320]

The display on the Mac was like 10X better which is far more important than a notch or not especially as it is easy to cover. The reflections on the Surface made it look dull and unusable at times; awful display.

[@mayank09pratap]

@@ahaimes6320 reflection is the only thing where mac seemed a little better. Other than that the surface laptop's screen looked much better.

[@crestofhonor2349]

@@ahaimes6320 The Surface laptop had the much better display outside of the reflectiveness of it

[@martingifford5415]

I use a black background, so I never see the notch.

[@Space97.]

Exactly hate the notch it's so ugly

[@flloouy]

Price fix dear manipulater -Microsoft 999$ for 512gb ssd, 16gb ram and 120fps -To get same features on mac you will pay more than 1500$ with 60fps

[@vladimirtalijan]

Some people will never understand that every device is hardware + software.

[@ETisnotme]

Thanks, much appreciated.

[@rekoreekoy6278]

I have noticed that you are more neutral than your brother. Your brother is an Apple enthusiast who strongly supports Apple, whereas you are more neutral.

[@arkaroy4308]

Waiting for the Samsung Book4 Edge with X Elite 84 vs M3 video

[@sydguitar99]

it's trash

[@arafkhan6320]

Should be 16gb ram 512gb ssd

[@scod3908]

There are videos comparing the Book4 edge to the Surface, it appears Samsung might be throttling the flagship X-elite chip to retain battery life as it didn't perform as well as expected. Samsung product also uses eUFS storage

[@rowaystarco]

The 84 Elite chip in the Samsung does actually not seem to have much of an advantage compared to the Surface Laptop. It seems like Microsoft has done a pretty good job with their devices.

[@M16-bf4ku]

@@scod3908 that is not true..... those mfs chose the battery saving mode..... so it would definitely be throttled..while they selected the recommended mode for the surface.... I am literally waiting for someone competent to compare the book 4 edge with a macbook pro

[@wordlv]

Think about the amount of optimization work that has been done on Apple side. The surface laptop is like a proof of concept in reality. I know it's not the first arm laptop, but it's the first time that people are for real taking this seriously. It's going to look a lot different 12 months from now

[@abdul9]

It would have been enough for me if the Xelite was as good as the M1 but then it's trading blows with the M3. I can't wait for the next iteration. This would be nice if they manage to get the graphics to be at least on paar.

[@KrystianGaleczka5]

For the first chip it’s impressive good job Qualcomm, beat intel and amd push those old architectures to the limits. It’s good for us, apple won’t be Messing around with 8gigs of ram anymore, but 12 comin at least for normal users (my mom teacher is using 8gb and it’s really fine but for heavy load I think you can push it to the limits like video editing or 3D, for 2D I think it’s great or light programming w/o dockers). Now finally a normal geek can say I buy windows laptop and feel no offence from a Mac user, it’s just great device for windows based applications.

[@maclock101]

In Germany, the Surface costs almost as much as a MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip. For me, it would be interesting to see what remains of the Windragon machine when tested against a Pro model.

[@RealityStudioLLC888]

Looking forward to your Davinci Resolve tests as I'm curious how well it's video decoders/encoders work compared to current Macbooks.

[@adinnugroho6544]

This is one off the fun comparison, ever. I mean, I was just surprised, 🐲🐉 X Elite powered Surface Laptop 7, has been perform just as good as expected. The fact, the battery still remain 32% is just wow. If it use for basic, it may last longer (maybe no need to charge) I also love the fact, it comes with 16 Gigs of RAM and 512 Gigs SSD. This might be will make Apple realise to stop the current config, many of you just hated

[@guddaboi]

I can't imagine using a 60hz panel in 2024.

[@pilsplease7561]

I cant imagine using a higher hz panel for no benefits but getting sick and throwing up a lot. Seriously those panels offer nothing but make some people sick.

[@guddaboi]

@@pilsplease7561 What? That is the weirdest thing I've ever heard. Personally, choppy mouse pointers in 60hz make me sick.

[@somnambulist6636]

Ok isheep , then why mac pros give pro motion LoL ​@@pilsplease7561

[@Äpple-pie-5k]

Everything on laptop and mobile is a tradeoff. Ever so slightly smoother mouse for double the battery life, is the [probably] smart choice Apple made for the Air. I have Pro Motion on Macbook Pro but if I'm really honest about it, it's not that big a deal compared to 60Hz on the Air. It's a luxury I paid for but we're talking about the baseline Air that people want for affordable pricing with the best-in-class battery life. If you hate it get a MBP, if not get an Air -- either way you're getting professional balanced tradeoffs and reliability on Mac.

[@muhammadragilsaputra3067]

​@@guddaboiyeah personally, im fine with my 60hz s10e and my TUF FX504.

[@AlphaWitcher]

Macbook is getting good battery life mostly because of 60hz panel vs 120hz on x elite. X elite is consumes 2x battery on emulated x86 apps. Wait around 2-3 months for further optimization for rest of major apps.

[@seanelias6478]

I don’t think Windows was rendering at 120hz while doing basic tasks

[@wawaweewa9159]

2 fans also use power

[@Alefast51]

youtuber who puts timestamp in their long video is an automatic subs from me, nice work!

[@VishalRana-ix9ry]

I am very happy it's good , people also needed to understand it's first gen processor on variety of system, and they are able to did good 👍 job

[@LiVeWiRez]

Did you install the new firmware update released yesterday for the Surface 7 ?

[@VladyslavOleksenko]

⚠ During the heating test, devices could influence on each other. Could you guys please put them aside next time? 😊

[@leonmadara3903]

Good review as always!

[@markedwards4879]

It’d be a better test if you did actually option the Mac up from the binned version and made it 16GB and 512GB…

[@skyak4493]

And the MBA would nearly cost as much as the Surface.

[@polishtheday]

@@skyak4493No it wouldn’t. The MacBook Air in the test was much cheaper. Extra RAM is only a few hundred dollars. I’ve bought MacBooks and Windows machines with the same specs and of similar quality where the price has been close and the Mac slightly cheaper. The only reasons the myth that Apple costs more persists is the market is flooded with cheap Windows machines while Apple continues to charge higher prices for peripherals and accessories.

[@TheosTechTips]

I totally agree. I think the point of this was to just see if the base model can keep up. The fair comparison is coming later.

[@scod3908]

16GB with the faster 512GB SSD would make a difference, but the actively cooled MBPro chassis would also make it less of an Apples to Oranges comparison (or should we say "Apple to Lemons", hehe)

[@fidelisitor8953]

@@scod3908 But macbook pros cost over $2000 or do you mean that fake "pro" macbook with 8GB of RAM at $1600 dollars?

[@fedorku]

The interesting thing in the ultrabook class is not just raw performance for me. It is the package of performance per watt, battery life and how well the cpu planner can scale those metrics to the performance I need in a particular moment. For now, looks like snapdragon is still far behind apple silicon in these metrics.

[@scod3908]

During testing: 50% battery left on MacBook Air vs 32% on the X-Elite Surface Laptop 7 That's all I needed to see: 68/50 = 1.36 (X-elite SoC used ~36% more of device battery capacity) The huge benefit of ARM based SoC's in the Apple products is all about efficiency *AND* performance, but it looks like the X-Elite falls short on the older M3 in a passively cooled chassis (let's not forget the M4 MacBooks is coming late '24)

[@TheosTechTips]

Yeah I wish he highlighted this part more. Especially because of all the marketing about snapdragon having SO MUCH BATTERY!

[@stingplay12]

¿Did you make the calculations based on the fact that L surface had 10% less battery life at the beginning of the tests?

[@scod3908]

​@@stingplay12 timestamp at 1:17 shows the Surface at 100% The benchmarks appear to have been done after the laptops sat on the desk for a while It's likely also a months old used MacBook battery and a brand spanking new MS Surface Battery ;) Nice try tho! haha

[@TheosTechTips]

@@stingplay12 Bro they had 100% at the beginning of the tests. Did you even watch the video? 1:16

[@nvnkb]

also take into note the surface laptop is running at 120hz while MacBook is at 60hz

[@luisfigueiredo8963]

X elite is still only in its first generation, M3 is a few generations ahead, so for now they have a lot to learn, in software and hardware

[@nich-nk2cr]

What X2 Elite should do is some sort of « prime » core like android phones on 8 gen 3 did. That would significantly hyper overclock a single core for the single core scores whilst keeping the chip just as efficient by leaving the other cores untouched.

[@SergioWolf843]

Apple has always dominated single core score and is at the level of Intel and AMD, since the A14 Bionic the Apple Chipsets already work with 8-width decoding, and no Snapdragon on the market has such an architecture, apart from which the X Elite spent more battery to try to keep up with the M3, if you take the variant with 16 RAM and Fan the X Elite dies on the way.

[@sunnatbekabdunabiyev4091]

PC companies: We'll beat apple anyway Apple: low energy, more power

[@tomluptowski]

wow Surface is so impressive it's almost as fast as the MacBook Air for only $500 bucks more, wow !

[@rohittkrr]

I thought Microsoft said they are 58% faster than m3 mba

[@innocentanthony3324]

Look at the multicore scores

[@Workaholic42]

No they didn't

[@ckhomphzxspaul8455]

We all know that already that Microsoft is a lier! And it prove!

[@xperiafan5370]

That's for MT under sustained performance

[@sameersheriff7078]

Its just a silly marketing !!!! No actual use in getting these ones so they try everything they can to make you get one 😂

[@IanHobday]

The catch is that SnapX has 10-12 big (high performance) ARMv9 cores. The M3 is ARMv8 with a few big cores and a number of little cores. The M4 is ARMv9, the real comparison to SnapX, and M4 is considerably faster than M3. Qualcomm has made a nice step in the right direction but Apple is still far in the lead.

[@Freddie1980]

No performance loss on battery...... that's because the CPU doesn't boost so it's effectively on cruise control 100% of the time.

[@denisrojriv4906]

The surface compared to a $1600 macbook M1 Max 512GB SSD 32GB RAM. Will the surface win?

[@raymondrached6301]

The X elite certainly isn't bad and it's even good considering that ARM on windows was utter garbage just before it but it's only competitive with current gen products that will become last-gen very soon. Compared to hawk point its a bit better in cpu and efficiency, and considerably better in npu(debatable how important it is), but it's also worse in gpu especially in gaming and not to forget it's worse with compatibility and it's coming out in newer laptops but at much higher prices. I'm really enthusiastic about the future of ARM on windows with this launch and what could future generations of silicon and improvements in compatibility and the translation layer bring to the table, but let's not act like x86 is dead, when lunar lake and strix point are out this year the x elite will trail them in all metrics.

[@Strange-Quest]

Does the surface charge through USBC if you want it to? Or is it only through the surface adapter? Just curious I'm still going Mac for laptops. And when I want that power desktop. Anyway I appreciate the videos.

[@siddsbohra]

yes! It charges both ways, with a surface connector as well as USB C

[@Strange-Quest]

@@siddsbohra honestly, makes it so much better in my eyes.

[@skyake59]

As for the battery life comparison, I think the refresh rate should be set to 60Hz to be fair between mac and surface laptop.

[@aleksandaruljarevic9856]

Do we know what resolution of external displays is supported?

[@deadworms]

Maximum Supported External Display Resolution: 4K Ultra HD @ 60 Hz

[@aleksandaruljarevic9856]

@@deadworms THANK YOU ! Still I think Macbook Air is superior especially if it is compared to 16GB RAM

[@siddsbohra]

@@aleksandaruljarevic9856 Look at the added cost as well $200 for extra ram

[@findlisa]

No doubt a BIG impact in this comparison regarding the unusual non-default choice of "Best" performance mode for the Surface Pro. I assure you that a very small percentage of users are choosing that mode on their Surfaces Pros. Maybe a couple percent or less. Yes, it should help the Surface Pro somewhat on performance tests, but it certainly would hurt the Surface Pro on peak temperatures, throttling, and battery life. You might want redo the entire evaluation using the default performance mode that 90-some percent of Surface Pro users will actually use.

[@emiliapeabea]

shouldve been compared to the 14 inch pro based on price ngl

[@sameersheriff7078]

Apple is always a bit expensive so its like asking to compare Toyota Camry with Mercedes C-Class.Where in this case toyota might have the upper hand as it the highest end of its sedan in comparison to lowest end in Mercedes.

[@thebuddercweeper]

And the M4 one at that - M3 was released approaching a year ago at this point, and M4 has already been released. It’s not really a fair comparison and yet the MacBook still wins in a lot of cases while using less power.

[@emiliapeabea]

@@sameersheriff7078 1. ur bringing cars into a discussion about tech and making an argument using said cars resulting in a knowledge gap- mumbo jumbo argument to many people 2. regardless of your point, basic numbers says that comparing a 1500$ macbook to a 1500$ surface is better than comparing the 1500$ surface with a 1200$ mac

[@sameersheriff7078]

@@emiliapeabea C'mon i was just trying to say apple is a premium product so even the entry level model will be on par with high to mid range variants in other companies . I feel bad that you couldn't even get this simple analogy 😂

[@emiliapeabea]

@@sameersheriff7078 then i feel bad for you for not having common sense? snap x elite, the higher end variant of the snap x plus, is up against the base chip of the apple series? thats on top of the price discreptancy that you decided to ignore because it doesn’t suit your narrative paints a not-so-flattering image of your intelligence

[@ChilenonetoYoutube]

Note that we are comparing a 1st generation device against a 3rd generation processor in a 5th gen hardware

[@GianluigiLeopardi]

I’ll keep my Mac

[@skyak4493]

The snapdragon will be discounted severely when Ryzen strix is released in a month. If they improve the software greatly and drop the price under 1k it might be worth a second look. Otherwise strix will simply outperform with none of the glitches and incompatabilities to deal with. I will play with AI on my M1 MBA and see if I feel compelled to buy an M4 Mac or windows machine. My Lenovo windows laptop of the same vintage just fell apart, literally.

[@hyperpedro2868]

No problem. We'll get 32gb and bug ssd for cheap. Enjoy your upgrades.

[@akin242002]

I don't think this will change many people's mind. Only those on the fence. M3 Air still had better battery life, web camera, and graphics. Both can't really play many games, and currently Macbook ARM is better than Snapdragon ARM for gaming. For those that want more RAM, adjustable SSD, and better multi-core performance would go with the Snapdragon X Elite laptop. This is assuming all the drivers are there for the apps they want to run.

[@scod3908]

@@akin242002 not all x-elite laptops have user upgradeable memory and storage, a few youtubers have been caught out on this already

[@MrJafar]

8:32 OMG How you can say 20% faster? It's almost 11% faster! Did you pass your mathematic class in high school?

[@olaitanadesoji3719]

I think the xelite laptops are doing very good. I feel like Most windows laptop manufacturers took a bet on this chip and were not fully invested... for a first generation laptop, this is very very impressive...

[@heptacon]

I'm surprised that the graphical performance on these chips is so poor. I expected something more in line with the M3 Pro, but it can't even match the Air.

[@JoseRuiz1348]

If it was the other way around we’d have android and pc fanboys saying “we’ve had this for years, catch up Apple” lol

[@ARUchannel1]

qualcomm should improve it but it's a nice kickstarter

[@jegardo11]

You forgot to tell ppl that co pilot is 20 dollars a month 😅

[@MonsterCreations662]

its free too

[@roohollahamiri8880]

Not on this machine, on Snapdragon x elite copilot runs locally using NPU and not on the cloud. Hence, you don't need to pay that monthly price.

[@KazrBrekker]

It's free to use plus these devices has good NPU so can do lot of stuff offline

[@klanowicz]

@@roohollahamiri8880 Copilot (ChatGPT on windows) doesn't run on NPU...

[@RobloxianX]

Here's a comparison idea: Surface Laptop 15" w/ 64GB Mem & 1TB Storage vs MBA 15" w/ 24GB Mem & 2TB. Both configs are $2500 USD. Maxed out Surface vs maxed out MacBook Air. Some gaming tests would also be good. You could also add the Surface 6 Business 15" with a Core Ultra 7, 64GB, and 1TB for $3000.

[@cjeelde]

I've said this for years: why not even one USB-A port on MacBooks since 2015-2016 when they introduced USB-C? Just one USB-A port would be very good! I get it, USB-C is a great thing, but it wouldn't hurt with at least one USB-A port... this comment will not make Apple change their MacBooks, I know...

[@Jhayzt19]

As much as I wanna go full Mac, my work still requires me to use windows based apps. And knowing that the X Elite is efficient? Yeah, I’m buying it.

[@Troll_Master_911]

With fan and still throttle? Such a shame Qualcumm. Lol 😂

[@ronalcasid3844]

But was still able to beat the Mac 😂

[@Troll_Master_911]

@@ronalcasid3844 Beat with 12 cores vs 8 Core M3. Poor kiddo? Do you have eyes or not? Lol 😆

[@AdamGamingARK]

when it thermal throttles, the temperatures become red. the surface clearly didn't thermal throttle, it was at 85 degrees that is not the temp of throttling but the macbook air throttled hard,the macbook air at 110 degrees, that is much more than even intel can ever arrives to, i bet you can cook eggs on the furnace air

[@Troll_Master_911]

@@AdamGamingARK 3.9 Ghz to 2GHz is called throttle. MacBook's surface temperature was 43 degrees Celsius and the Surface’s temperature was 47. What are you smoking, kid? Lol 😆

[@innocentanthony3324]

@@Troll_Master_911 lol look who's calling someone a kid. You have been trolling since 2022 bro get a life

[@BlackGold24h]

Don't forget that to the Surface Laptop have 12 core cpu vs 8 core cpu in the MacBook Air...

[@forthphoto]

If the performance is similar why care about number of cores? There are cpus with dozens of cores that are useless and there are good quad core cpus.

[@scod3908]

They had to add more cores or they would have benchmarked below the Apple SoC, their cores just aren't as refined. The single core performance is >12% behind the old M3 chip by stats in this vid, and the M4 is already in production (expected in the MacBook Pro range late '24) The additional cores appear to be having a significant effect on the power consumption and waste heat measured thru the chassis via FLIR. The main selling point of the ARM based SoC's is *efficiency* not raw performance; the average Joe/Jill browsing youtube and netflix on an Air benefits more from a few hours additional battery life than the somewhat negligible multicore performance increase of the x-elite product

[@commentarytalk1446]

The real heat is on when 2-in-1s get Snapdragon ARM chips that allow a smaller, lighter form factor so tablet mode and laptop mode are possible and thus outcompete the iPad Pro with iPadOS limitations - then the ball is smashed back into Apple's court to respond. Already OEM's such as Xiaomi do Pad Pros that cost about $300 and are quite comparble to iPad Pros but for a fraction of the price. Yes it's running Android 14 and customization of this for the device that makes it even more iPadOS-like and it's not as good but it's more flexible with less App Store restrictions by Apple which is an advantage when extending the use of the device. Imagine that but running Windows and it's a game changer...

[@SatriaHardinata]

we will finally in the zone where the OS (Mac vs Windows) is the major reason to choose a laptop

[@d33zknots88]

Me here thinking we have M4 MacBooks just to remember that that's the Ipads 💀

[@MrGregAndo]

Hey let’s start by testing battery life by putting the Windows device on the worst battery mode…sure no bias here

[@sydguitar99]

He mentioned how the Mac doesnt have a performance mode, only a lower power mode. So realistically the chip on the Surface is running at its best so its boosting the benchmark results

[@Jeannemarre]

@@sydguitar99is it a MacBook Pro exclusive ? I have the m3 max and I have high performance automatic and low power

[@ahaimes6320]

Both are on the highest performance, so I assume Qualcomm/Windows optimises them as MacOS does. We could put both on battery saving but these tasks need performance as that is what we are testing.

[@sydguitar99]

@@Jeannemarre I am not sure but since the Air doesn't have fans, I don't think they would give it a performance for the risk of it overheating

[@aidarchikable]

But Mac is always working in the best performance mod. He just set equal settings for both.

[@erikjohnson9112]

I think batteries take multiple cycles before they reach their maximum ability to hold a charge (and then over time they slowly degrade). This means the battery should technically be cycled a few times before testing. Probably a minor point.

[@scott-richardson]

So to summarise: The Mac is more powerful except in heavily threaded workloads, and uses less battery/power regardless. As soon as you match the RAM and CPU core count, there is going to be a bigger difference. The only tip of the hat for the X Elite is the SSD speeds and the touch screen. AN M3 Pro with 12 cores is going to smoke this across the board. And an M4 MacBook Air (when it arrives) is going to be even faster.

[@destructodisk9074]

One thing I keep in the back of my head when seeing benchmarks. Though these laptops are priced similarly, the chips inside are not the same tier. This is Qualcomm's "Elite" series, it is at minimum designed to compete against M Pro, but given the other chip they revealed is a "Plus" series, I am thinking the Elite is supposed to be a Max competitor. Anyway the base M series is designed to run in entry level laptops and even in tablets, both fan-less. The Elite is not the entry level chip and cannot be in a fan-less device. Of course Qualcomm is marketing this against base M, but that is only because they couldn't develop a chip that realistically went up against Pro and Max.

[@destructodisk9074]

@GarrusVakarian-to2uh Same price? Yes. Same laptop? No. Same RAM and Storage mean nothing. I mean I bought my kids a $299 ACER with this same RAM and storage. Does that mean the X Elite is overpriced by $700? No, because total package price is a different subject than individual chip performance (BTW the AMD APU graphics in that $299 laptop destroy the X Elite). The X Elite is the highest end desktop OS chip Qualcomm makes and it is at the very least, one tier higher than their X "Plus" desktop OS chip line, so the Elite can't possibly be competing with Apple's base M series. Base M series starts at $499 in the Mac Mini or $599 on the M1 Air or $599 in the iPad. That Elite chip will be placed in all kinds of laptops from $999 laptops to $2000 laptops. What vendors choose to build around the chip or the quality of the laptops, or the features and ports it offers and the retail price are open to design choice. The price is not locked to the Elite chip itself or the RAM and storage.The retail price is locked to the total system build. However the fact that they launched it as a minimum 1 tier above another chip, the fact that it needs a cooler, and the fact that it pulls a certain number of watts... all put it up against at the very minimum M Pro series.

[@destructodisk9074]

@GarrusVakarian-to2uh It's known Apple over charges, and it's known Microsoft tries to undercut Apple's pricing. It's known Microsoft doesn't have to pay itself a license fee for all its tech patents and its OS, so any Surface device is being sold for a couple hundred dollars less than competing laptops from Dell, Lenovo, ETC. A more accurate comparison would be MacBook Air=Surface Laptop Go, MacBook Pro base M1= Surface Laptop, MacBook Pro 16 Pro and Max =Surface Laptop Studio. But again none of that is relevant. The chip stands alone, and whatever vendors decide to configure and price it with is on them. The chips class is the second tier in Qualcomm's desktop OS chip line. That is factual and there is no disputing that. For now their Plus line is their base level, and M4 is Apple's current base line. Going back to the pointless "total system build topic", when Microsoft updates their Laptop Go line, what chip do you think will be in it? The Plus correct? What chip is in the base Surface Pro tablet? The plus. What chip is in the MacBook Air? The base M. What chip is in Apple's Pro tablet? The base M. Plus and M 3/4 are these companies base chips going head to head. Elite is at minimum an M Pro competitor.

[@thomaspalmer6453]

Finally, there’s a Windows Surface laptop that can compete with a MacBook. Which one is better is determined by what the user wants to do with it. The Mac is better for gaming, but the Surface has a touchscreen and better multi-core performance. However, we now have two great choices.

[@xali2008]

About the battery, the surface does have a fan and is higher refresh rate.

[@vvcv__00]

On the Mac, the detail in shadowed areas are completely saturated out (no details). On the Sanpdragon PC, you can still see plenty of details in the deep shadow areas. I just don't understand why people get so into "deep blacks", to the point of losing details??? This is, of course, watching the video on my monitor.

[@alensufli]

I am gonna pick the next gen X Elite Surface laptop for sure. It’s great to there’s a competition now!

[@stanislasflipo7214]

meanwhile my computer acheiving 5.74 in speedometer 3.0

[@AlphaWitcher]

I like how you can just get surface x plus 256gb model laptop for $999 and upgrade ssd later. Thats a big plus for me.

[@Deadenne]

Hope Qualcomm will use this naming scheme on their mobile chips too. 8 Elite Gen4 8 Plus Gen4(already being used)

[@thebadhombre9917]

Kinda dumb comparison. The windows has a fan. The MacBook Air thermals are not as good. You can get a MacBook Pro M1 Pro used for cheaper and it still blows away that crappy surface laptop

[@sAmiZZle82]

This is the review everyone was waiting for but would be great if you could do another one comparing a MacBook that has the same spec CPU and RAM to compare Apples to apples so to speak 😅

[@YanikMoskvich]

Considering that the macbook is literally 500$ cheaper and weighs less this was in no way a fair comparison.

[@potter5]

Thank you Max, and team for the fantastic coverage and real-life comparison 👏🏻👏🏻

[@bharat5194]

The Surface hardware is so beautiful. Love the no-notch screen!

[@divieee]

I think the problem with Snapdragon X Elite laptops is going to be optimization. The chip itself is very good, but the brands working with it are the ones that decide if it's going to be a banger or hard flop. This applies to both software and hardware companies, because if there are no optimized software (which is probably not the case considering how fast brands are moving towards arm) it's basically useless

[@JustifyJustin]

Surely the emulation would catch this? Apart from gaming, I haven't seen any software that isn't workable via the emulator, apart from games, but realistically speaking, you don't buy these machines from games, there are much better options for that. Since Apple has been on the "M" train for quite some time, most of their software would be optimized. The Windows environment is starting from scratch. Given that head start, the performance difference is quite remarkable from Snapdragon and I suspect will age like fine wine. Nothing like a fast machine becoming faster over time. That's something we Windows users haven't ever been able to say.