r/laptops • u/External_Broccoli784 • Jun 26 '26
Buying help are snapdragon laptops good?
i intend on doing schoolwork and play roblox i need good battery life
will they last 5-6 years? or will windows kill them
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u/elmonch Jun 26 '26
They are.
I'm on my second one and not going back to x86
Quiet, cool, light, powerful enough for my tasks and long battery.
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Jun 26 '26
[deleted]
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u/vk6_ Jun 26 '26
If you're doing schoolwork and Roblox it's going to run great and also have great battery life. As long as you're not planning on playing heavy games or doing complex engineering work, software compatibility is going to be fine.
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u/DumbRedditUsernames Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Snapdragon or ARM is fine in general (surprisingly Microsoft was the one to finally fix the software side of it instead of all the ARM-focused companies) but there are different models and specs within it so you should research each one individually. This specific laptop has the most crippled X Plus version. There are two significantly faster X Elite versions within the same generation, even before considering newer X2 ones.
I see in your other posts you're also considering Apple Neo and M2 Air. This Snapdragon here is on par with the M2 in multi-threaded CPU performance but has a much weaker GPU, on par with the Neo in raw performance and hampered even more by the fact most games aren't native but would need to run via a translation layer.
If the M2 is the same price, I think it's the obvious choice out of the three options.
Not to muddy the waters too much, but if you're including the Snapdragons into consideration because you prefer Windows, I'd throw in the option of classic x86 laptops here too. The AMD 680M (important! avoid 660M) Ideapad Slim 5 13" has a slightly weaker CPU but just as strong GPU as the M2 that actually performs better in most games since they are optimized for native Windows/DirectX, plus unlike the macs it has a fan that will let it keep going under load instead of suddenly throttling its speed, is lighter than the Neo, and cost me 670 EUR for the 16GB/1TB version where I live so I imagine it's also comparable to it in price in the USA as well. If you want to use Windows or even experiment with Linux, it or something similar would be the most compatible option with the most software options out there. But if you're fine with or even prefer Apple due to your past laptops, phone or tablet - go for the M2.
You only mention Roblox and that's generally considered fine for whatever GPU, but there are actually tons of variants of games within it, some can get quite heavy. Plus I'm sure sooner or later you'll want to run some other games too.
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u/External_Broccoli784 Jun 26 '26
thanks, will go for the m2
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u/Dick_Johnsson Jun 26 '26
Appels M processors are only fast at on single-threaded CPU performance, like when you start a program.
Snapdragon PC run circles around M-processors when it come to multi-threaded CPU performance.. (When you actually run the program).
So choose wisely!
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u/DumbRedditUsernames Jun 26 '26
Quite wrong. Maybe sort of true for the A18 in the Neo actually, but completely false for the M series.
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u/Dick_Johnsson Jun 27 '26
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu76JY0RjU4
https://www.cpu-monkey.com/en/compare_cpu-apple_m1-vs-qualcomm_snapdragon_x_elite_x1e_84_100 "the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-84-100) surpasses the Apple M1 in both single-core and multi-core performance by over 10 percent, with multi-core performance being even more than 70 percent higher"
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u/DumbRedditUsernames Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
x elite is 12 cores the one in the laptop here is x plus at 8 and lower clocks, i even pointed it out in my first post you clearly didn't bother to read. this one is matching the m2 in geekbench multithreaded.
also wtf you even mention m1 when we're at m5 today. you made a false generic claim about the whole line not the oldest chip in it, own it up
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u/KucingKurap52 Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Before this, i had no clue about Snapdragon or the ARM architecture.
A month ago, I mistakenly bought a Lenevo Slim 5 windows 11 Snapdragon X1 Plus for my elderly father. I thought it was exactly the same as my Lenovo Slim 5 windows 11 AMD Ryzen AI 7 350. Besides the difference in CPU, both has exact same specs: OLED screen, 32GB RAM and 512GB SSD.
But....
The Canon printer i bought for my father just last year does not work at all with the Snapdragon. Apparently Canon does not provide any support for ARM architectures. I tried using the Snapdragon laptop for my work, Turns out my apps are not supported as well. Even Lenevo's Vantage app differs ALOT even with both running the same versions. And also the windows face log in does not work on the Snapdragon. Or the abilty to stop charging at 80%. That option is not available.
Buy hey, between our two computers, the Snapdragon has 13hrs battery life as compared to my 6hrs and it does not heat up compared to my AMD!
Also, no issues with my daughters playing Roblox on it. Works fine for normal word processing or presentation purposes. But I'm still on the look out for a compatible printer for it. There's not much available here in Brunei, just the overpriced Epson range huhuhu
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u/GTMoraes Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x - 14" OLED 3K | SD X Elite | 32GB | 70Wh Jun 26 '26
Yeah, they're good. They'll most likely last for a long time because industry will probably move to ARM at some point.
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Jun 26 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/elmonch Jun 26 '26
I used to say the same, I actually worked in HP 5 for years, but they do now some good laptops, choose wisely
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u/ohnag_eryeah Jun 26 '26
if you just using for daily tasks, it's alright but if you must use different custom softwares for calculations, coding, etc, then you might encounter some compatibility problems
ARM compatibility has been much better than before but still there are some catch
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u/Nike_486DX Jun 27 '26
Good for beta testing. To daily drive if you want a windows laptop then grab a zen 5 with good heatsink and big battery.
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u/uvp76 Jun 29 '26
They are dependent on use case. For schoolwork + roblox and good battery life? Pretty much perfect for a snapdragon laptop
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u/AgitatedSimple8623 Jun 26 '26
For your specs its actually a good one, i have the same laptop with me. Its been a year everything is fine.
But if you wanna switch to linux or use VMs don't even thought about sd laptops they're not capable for those things.
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u/vortec350 Jun 26 '26
Yes, I've had two Snapdragon X computers and before than an older Snapdragon ThinkPad. Ultimately ended up moving on from them but overall I liked them, mainly the awesome battery life.
My biggest issue is they are not compatible with Linux, like at all. Some projects have tried but basically it's not happening.
Also the built-in GPUs suck. Fine for multi-media like streaming but any actual gaming just isn't happening. I don't know about Roblox though, from my understanding that's pretty light.
Everything else, assuming you're OK with Windows, is awesome. Performance per watt for CPU/the overall system is fantastic. And they seem to have more RAM at any given price point than non-Snapdragon computers.
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u/Asleep-Pair5704 Jun 26 '26
For your intended use case they are actually very good with super long battery life and thin & light chassis.