Opinion of a Snapdragon X Elite Laptop as My Daily Driver
When it comes to new laptops built with the newest technology, the Snapdragon X Elite chip is one not to be ignored. Microsoft has incorporated these chips into their own Surface branded machines, several manufacturers have followed suit, for a very good reason.
In December of 2025, I was looking for a laptop to replace my dated Lenovo Thinkpad. Now, this ThinkPad works for basic everyday use, but I needed one that could edit videos if I was not able to do so from my Dell XPS desktop.
First I bought an Alienware gaming PC with more power than I actually needed, and was upgradable (RAM and SSD) for future-proofing my machine. However, I ran into issues with updating the graphics driver through Windows 11 update and also directly from Nvidia. This, plus the weight of the machine, made me very uncomfortable with my purchase.
I ended up returning the machine and decided to keep my mind open for other options, which is where I discovered the newer Snapdragon X Plus and Elite chipsets in slimmer machine profiles. Mind you, these ARM Snapdragon chips were introduced in early 2025, so I was not aware of them upon release, and Microsoft had used ARM based processors in their early line of Surface products which apparently didn’t do well.
As with any newer chipsets, like the Apple M Processors, developers have to be willing to make software that meets the functionality and design of these new processors. This can take some time, but many have made an effort in order to do so.
Luckily I made my purchase almost a year after all of the social media influencers have dealt a sour hand to Snapdragon throughout 2025, especially those who are Apple devotees, which my experience has been nothing but incredible to say the least.
All of this praise doesn’t come with a bit of drawback. Adobe hasn’t been friendly with the Snapdragon chips as of yet (early 2026) and their beta apps aren’t ready for mainstream, so I switched to DaVinci Resolve, which works flawlessly for editing videos. Another setback is the development of Linux for these machines. While I have not tried to install Ubuntu or Fedora, which both have 64 bit ARM distro releases available, I have read that performance is not as expected like it would be on an Intel or AMD machine. I decided to stick with Windows 11 and disabled many settings to keep my new PC private. Of course, a reputable VPN never hurts either.
My personal experience with these Snapdragon chips has been overwhelmingly positive and I appreciate the slim and lightweight design of these machines over a gaming laptop. I did purchase my Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X on sale, which made the buying process even better.
Would I recommend this and other Snapdragon based PCs? Absolutely. With the combined attributes of weight, speed, design, and value for the money, you simply can’t go wrong with a Snapdragon plus or elite PC.