Surface Snapdragon X Elite vs Plus Faster Than M3 MacBook Air? Is this real?

Surface Snapdragon X Elite vs Plus vs M3 MacBook Air, are these any good? This is going to be the usual pro workflow test with various Adobe Apps and other creative apps to see how they perform. So far, I want this to be good based on the hype and claims, but the reality is quite different. Have a look at the test results in this video.
00:00 Intro
00:24 Preface
01:11 Test System
02:51 Thoughts going in
03:19 Win 11 vs Mac Setup
05:18 Comparing to M3 MBA
07:35 Prism
08:38 Native Apps
09:29 Native vs Optimization
10:50 Creative Cloud Apps not available
11:51 Other test machines
13:30 Abbreviation Chart
13:36 SSD
14:02 RAM
14:14 Lightroom Classic
14:35 LRC Import 1K
16:23 LRC Export 1K
19:18 HDR Merge
20:18 Pano Merge
21:29 AI Noise Reduction
23:01 Lightroom Export
25:05 Capture 1 Import
26:06 Capture 1 Export
28:15 Photoshop
29:08 NLE
29:22 AfterEffects
29:39 What does this all mean?
31:35 Too early?
33:00 Should you get these?
34:00 Conclusion
Art's Tip Jar
www.paypal.com/donate/?busine...
Full Disclosure:
ArtIsRight is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a way for websites to earn advertising revenues by advertising and linking to amazon.com
Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.
#Surfacelaptop #snapdragonxplus #snapdragon

[@akeaveney]

Love to see your thorough and scientific approach to testing these machines.

[@ArtIsRight]

Thank you

[@andikunar7183]

Thanks a lot for the very professional review!

[@fmax6000]

Another great review Art. Excellent! Keep up the great work man.

[@ArtIsRight]

Much appreciated!

[@mac3864]

Great content, thanks for putting this together

[@ArtIsRight]

much appreciated

[@dpodjasek]

So... I feel like this video should make much clearer that it is almost entirely based on results from Adobe programs. A company that has been incredibly slow to support ARM on Windows, and hasn't done a particularly great job at it. If you look at results from other programs, they are much better. Windows in general and productivity software run excellent on them, and the battery life is much improved. I certainly agree that if you are in Adobe programs 90% of the day, it's too early for Copilot+ machines to make sense. Likewise for gamers. But for many of the rest of us, these machines provide incredible performance in Windows with excellent battery life at a great price.

[@andyH_England]

But...are most "pro" and "semi-pro" photographers not using Adobe? There are reviews including DaVinci, which is native but that has poor performance at the moment and is miles behind Macs for anything more than 30 mins of work.

[@roguewavecreative]

you point is fair. As someone that used a pc to start out in design and then went to a mac it really depends on what you do. This is the issue with reviews. On yt most people make it about what they do. In the end it is what you do. For example, for gaming (which admittedly is not my thing) and heavy 3d work it would almost be a tough one to use a mac. Yes, it works but you will spend alot of money on a product that you could s-end way less on a pc and get way better results. That said as someone that uses adobe for graphic design I got a grest deal on a new m1 max with 64gb mem for 2299. It works great and could not justify upgrading if I wanted to. It really comes down to what you are using it for and with good solid workflows a sec here and there is not going to justify upgrading or getting one over the other. It all depends on what you do. Most reviews never or earely mention this.

[@TonyCrenshawsLatte]

Yeah, I think the proper takeaway from this video is not "Snapdragon sucks," but rather "it ain't ready for primetime just yet." And that's valuable information too.

[@JosephSimony]

Let's get this straight (not a rant, not a fanboy): - you only have 2 Snapdragon processor laptops from a single brand, and you somehow compare them with God knows how many Mac configs; - you are not running battery tests; - you somehow assume that Adobe is not constantly losing market share (otherwise, there were 10 other creative apps would be in the mix); - you don't even have the previous versions of these MS devices. You used to be professional. My neighbor can make a more fair comparison 😢

[@tristanpau1p]

The early comparison for ARM Macs on non native Adobe software vs Intel Macs. This is where the praise for Rosetta 2 comes in. That said, ARM Macs uses emulation at the hardware level.

[@jd_alofa]

Professional review honestly thanks, it would be great if you could make some updates weeks later as they optimize stuff

[@ArtIsRight]

I'll try to do that, thank you

[@hamodalbatal464]

One of best and honest reviews. Thank you

[@ArtIsRight]

I appreciate that!

[@Aaronage1]

Thanks for the comprehensive testing 💪 Which power profile did you use on the Surface machines? The "Best performance" profile is necessary to get the most out of these chips. I have a Surface Laptop with X Elite (X1E-80-100) for testing and found "Recommended" limits performance to around 60% of the max potential 😅

[@ArtIsRight]

That is a great question, and it is something that I would doing the test again on. I'll have an update video on this soon. And thanks for pointing this out! Sadly, most users, especially non tech savvy one are going to exactly what I did and use the default setting.

[@vmafarah9473]

This is going to help for alot of people.

[@ArtIsRight]

thank you

[@overnightparking]

Thanks

[@ArtIsRight]

Thank you!

[@omroopchandani2993]

Can expect these tests again when there's native support?

[@ArtIsRight]

I'm going to try :)

[@frstesiste7670]

Super interesting review. I bought the first ARM based Windows PC, the Surface RT. It worked for what I bought it for until only IE browser made it unusable, but watching how Microsoft seemingly didn't want ARM-based machines succeed I've stayed away from Windows on ARM since then. A lot have changed now, but they still don't look like mature products. I really hope that will change, but so far it looks like it will take another generation. I'd like to be surprised though and maybe software updates from Microsoft, Adobe and others can make this generation more competitive.

[@ArtIsRight]

I hear you

[@aelaan12]

It is really early for these machines, there will be a lot of updates coming in the next months. I don't think Apple will see this as "stiff" competition, but depending on what you use the computer for and what power plan you have loaded the Qualcomm X12 performs reasonably well, but I am not a creator, more your average power user using it for system administration. There will be updates to software, and I am happy with my big rig and use this laptop to enjoy some time in the sun room or deck. With the premium screen (120Hz) and the excellent support for external screens it has all I need (Laptop 7, 15" X12)

[@ArtIsRight]

I'm with you!

[@mikayel18ify]

Would be nice to have these tests on some other workflows, maybe data oriented, not specifically adobe suite

[@superqaxclub]

Art is a photographer so he focuses on adobe suite

[@ArtIsRight]

Thank you @superqaxclub what he said :)

[@quagmire321able]

Interesting results for C1, didn't really watch the other sections since I don't use any of the other programs. I wish you have tested Davinci Resolve Studio as well as Affinity Photo though... Since I use those instead of Premier or Photoshop.

[@ArtIsRight]

thank you

[@mrmosk2011]

Another well done review. Although I did not plan to buy a Surface, but your tests clearly shows it is a little early to jump in. I feel the style of programming of Adobe and CaptureOne is different, thus the odd results. I think Apple did a good job try to get Adobe work nicely with its products, because they know photographers. Qualcomm does not know as much about the photographers needs, so the workloads could be off. CaptureOne may be more aligned with Qualcomm workload. This means there is a potential for Windows, or Qualcomm to optimize to Adobe. However, I don't know if that requires a new generation of chips or some kind of OS update. I agree with your conclusion, photographers should hold off jumping in, but we should keep an eye on it. More competition is always good for the customers.

[@ArtIsRight]

I have a new test coming that shows the results are closer in some aspect. Video should be coming soon :)

[@johnmartin8481]

Thank you for this review. I am interested in the new Copilot+ PCs with the ARM base processing systems. Interesting observations for me is that the Razor configuration high performance in many of the test is amazing. For me, based on your information, I will not consider the new ARM based Windows systems. I will wait for the new Intel and AMD and compare at that time for my replacement laptop. Also, in my case Apple products have not been as compatible with software and hardware products compared to Windows. And for business, cre ative and productivity compatibility, Windows systems offer the best options if any computing platform.

[@ArtIsRight]

I hear you :)

[@Noodles.FreeUkraine]

Great and very thorough analysis. Although it is starting to get a bit old that 99.9% of YT videos cite creative work as the single source of professional use, while it's really one of the least use cases when it comes to business. A CEO who spends his day in mail and spreadsheets is a pro, even if he doesn't use Capture One. Same for the countless other people who basically just run their ERP in a browser window and the coder who types away in VS Code. Mind you, I do understand that you test the software you're familiar with, but the framing feels unnecessary.

[@ArtIsRight]

I hear you and this is a niche channel with niche testing. For this use it is not recommended as of now.

[@DanielIkpeama]

I actually just setup a new W11 system around the same time as the video came out and it is possible to still setup without an account via command line, but to your point @4:55 it's unnecessarily difficult and you have to actually disable the wireless antenna in order to have the option show up. I 100% agree that that OOBE is trash.

[@ArtIsRight]

Good to know, what command line did you use. I tried the OOBE command line and that just failed.

[@linux666]

excellent. I would like for Apple to hurry up and put M4 on all their machines. It's annoying to see non discounted M2 machines when the ipad runs the M4

[@aelaan12]

It will be fall 2024 (September/October) time frame, unless they included it the iPhone announcements after we all get back to work after the vacation.

[@akin242002]

I'm annoyed they didn't add the M3 chip to the Mac Mini. I was going to give it to my wife. She ended up getting the M3 Air with 16/512GB setup instead of waiting.

[@superqaxclub]

@@akin242002N3B chips are not optimal for Apple and they want to get rid of it ASAP so that's why M3 and A17 chips are on very few devices

[@micheallarsen8687]

Putting m4 in ipad was strategic marketing. M3 air just came out..

[@TamasKiss-yk4st]

@micheallarsen8687 i agree with you, they just wanted to show the M4 chip in real product instead of, here is out provided benchmarks, you can by this chip in about 6 montha later.. (and the iPad is one of the lowest sales rate, so they only needed to manufacture a few million chip, and they can switch to manufacture the A18 for the september event.. the 2-3million M4 required relatively low manufacturing time compared to 200-300million A18, and they just wanted a real M4 product before X Elite released)

[@HeroShotz]

I was so mad when my lenovo wasnt compatible with any adobe stuff which is what i use daily 😢

[@ArtIsRight]

Imagine my shock and then surprise

[@Duckstalker1340]

Nothing’s wrong with these SD X Elite, the software needs to catch up, those tested AI & HDR merge tasks need to be updated to use the NPU of the SoC, it’s bad right now I can only assume they’re running CPU only via Prism.

[@andyH_England]

We have to trust that developers will improve and start coding for the NPU--good luck with that. The general advice is do not buy today, wait...and wait...until...?

[@Duckstalker1340]

@@andyH_England I’d not buy or recommend family and friends to buy anything first gen anyway, I definitely would wait for at least 2nd gen, and hopefully the software had caught up by then. But I’m sure that there are still plenty of audiences for these new SD X Elite laptops as not everyone uses laptops to edit photos and videos.

[@andyH_England]

@@Duckstalker1340 Yes, I agree with both takes. Second-gen seems the best choice though for some use cases the X Elite will be great, though relatively expensive...so wait a few months for discounts.

[@ArtIsRight]

I hear you

[@user-cf9ir4gw2c]

So, don't buy if you use Lightroom?

[@ArtIsRight]

you can, it may be slower now but it will only improve from here

[@SirDragonClaw]

All the creative cloud apps work just fine, you just need to download them manually since they don't want you to use them.

[@andyH_England]

I was told they do not work for Creative Cloud members. I assume those users do not have stand-alone licenses and are unlikely to buy older software that may never be made native to ARM. Early reviewers could download, but this was blocked due to subpar performance on ARM.

[@ArtIsRight]

Creative Cloud App does not give the option to side load at the moment. So I am going by what users have access to. And thank you @andyH_England for the input :)

[@TECHVSTECHX]

Love your little your clip , but the fact stands ! The engineers that designed the Apple ARM chips designed these . So eventually you'll see parity or Qualcomm passing the Apple ones. 😅

[@ArtIsRight]

Thank you!

[@vernearase3044]

Sure … it was originally designed as a server chip by a collaboration between ex-Apple engineers and ARM with 12 p-cores in a machine with active cooling.

[@ArtIsRight]

...ok...

[@Vee-Wee]

I agree with the conclusion that creators should look at the other options from intel or AMD but you saying even for daily task just doesn't hold up. Almost every reviewer (even those which are critical of QC) are of the same opinion that these are equally good as m3 air for daily usage. Lenovo 7x slim even beats m3 in such situations. In video you have mostly run tests for specific workloads which in comparison to what most people can be considered niche. All in all I just wanted to say that the conclusion must be specific to what was tested.

[@ArtIsRight]

Ok sure but this channel is niche and I did say that for most other application and general use it would do fine.

[@Vee-Wee]

@@ArtIsRight you say different at 33:42 though

[@XashA12Musk]

I’m gonna bet on lunar lake, all the x86 support and better battery life than meteor lake

[@ArtIsRight]

I would love to see how this works out, it seems promising so far.

[@kuau714]

couple of comments. first I don't see Adobe releasing an ARM version of LRC for windows. Also as you mentioned one thing is a "Native"app yet the apps have not been optimized. Here's the catch 22 in all of this app developers are going to wait and see how many Snapdragon systems actually sell and the flip side is buyers are waiting for more native / optimized apps.

[@MrKar18]

People usually forget past. But reminder - Apple M1 went thru similar issues on Gen1. For Microsoft it's even more complicated as it has to support x86 and ARM at same time. Devs will need time to build and it's already in good pace. If you really want Adobe wait or don't buy this or use their cloud offering.

[@ArtIsRight]

we'll have to wait and see. There's probably an arm optimized version coming...

[@akin242002]

SSD: Okay, but you can adjust most of them. Samsung 990 Pro M.2 2280 SSD had 7600 read and 6900 write speeds. RAM: Not adjustable, but great speeds. 8440 Mhz/s. CPU: Excellent speeds and battery life. M chip Macbooks are #1, but Snapdragon X Elite chips are #2. GPU: Massive disappointment. This effects gaming and video editing. App compatible: Massive disappointment. Even old printers 🖨 don't synch.

[@andyH_England]

I would like to see the tests of SSD speeds from an upgrade as I understand, Samsung at least throttle transfer speeds on the battery to improve their SOT.

[@ArtIsRight]

Yes GPU is meh!

[@rohittkrr]

People who utilise multicore performance will not go either x elite or m3 they will look at more higher end

[@andyH_England]

Snapdragon does not have a higher chip, so if you are a devotee of X Elite, this is what you will see at the moment.

[@ArtIsRight]

what @andyH_England said :)

[@superqaxclub]

So basically X Elite with more power consumption, a fan is slightly faster than M3 with low power consumption, and no fan. The whole point of arm chip is power consumption and the X Elite power consumption is similar to low power x86 cpu defeats the purpose

[@ArtIsRight]

New and updated test coming with somewhat improve results

[@SambitBiswas]

i'll take them 2 years to reach where mac app devs are right now

[@ArtIsRight]

let's see, I would hope

[@Krmelj]

Some of us professionals hate using the MacOS, and I for one cant wait to switch back to a photography oriented laptop with more ports (USB-A and USB -C) but with powerful windows file management and UI in win11.

[@ArtIsRight]

I hear you, that is why I never push one platform vs another. I'm sharing test info so that even if you like PC, which is totally fine, you can choose the best machine for the workflow.

[@Krmelj]

@@ArtIsRight amen, I used MacOS for about two years now as I wanted the portable performance and to keep myself platform agnostic, bit find myself slowly frustrated by apple way of doing file management. Keep up the good work! 👍🏻

[@dp8jl]

Do you know how much does and M3 pro cost vs what you pay for one of these X Elite machines? There is people like you out there who compare a Vision Pro to 400$ meta quest

[@andyH_England]

Currently, the MB Pro 14 M3 PRO, the higher model is about $300 more than the Surface Laptop. Lots of deals on Macbooks at the moment. I have seen the MB Air M3 for as low as $800. There are no X Elite laptops close to that price. So, no nothing like comparing a Vision Pro with a Meta Quest, an absolute silly example!

[@ArtIsRight]

Yes I am acutely aware and these machine are more inline with M3 MBP performance and spec wise than M3 Pro SoC, those are in a league of their own.

[@Bizmops]

even the x plus beat the m3 air. only in multhithread which is good. but their gpu is not great, can't wait for nvidia gpu jump in the arm wagon for windows!

[@dennyyohanes8677]

I think it's because the core counts. 10 Core VS 8 core. If M3 Air has 10 core, the result in multithreaded would be different

[@andyH_England]

M3 has 4 performance cores versus 12 for the X Elite--that is not a shocker! The problem is that in real life, that advantage does not trade 1:1, not even close. So benchmarks, in this case, at the moment are meaningless.

[@TamasKiss-yk4st]

Because you can find one result where the 10 power cores with active cooling can beat the 4 power cores with passive cooling, you can accept the other results blindly? Or did you even watched the video (or do you understand what you saw..?) Even the M3 beated the X Elite in at least 90% of the test.. by the way they needed almost the same amount of power cores what the M1 Ultra had (16 power cores), just to compete the 4 power cores in the basic lineup.. (the 12 is closer to the 16 like to the 4..)

[@Bizmops]

@@TamasKiss-yk4st it's not about power. i'm talking about the fastest. m3 does have the fastest single core, and also have the best power efficiency score among the other chip. but as a whole chip, in benchmark, x elite is faster than the m3

[@ArtIsRight]

Nvidia would be good

[@paulwoodward8265]

Can’t give them a pass because they are taking peoples money today. Don’t do the massive launch event if the hardware/firmware/software isn’t done. What a disaster.

[@ArtIsRight]

I hear you... I'm working on a new test right now that shows improved results. I'll share it soon some are good but others are still just ok

[@abobonickname5696]

Microsoft works with many OEMs whereas Apple does not. It's not everything you can or should compare. (OOBE)

[@ArtIsRight]

sure but performance and overall user experience wise on setup is something that any one that uses both can compare