Qualcomm’s latest Arm processor, the Snapdragon X Elite, is the latest talk of the (tech) town for good reason. Finally, undeterred by 12 years of unsuccessful attempts, Windows on Arm is making a wide stride in the right direction. The Snapdragon X Elite seems to be the long-awaited chip that could put Windows PCs back in contention with Apple’s outstanding Macs and MacBooks in terms of performance, power efficiency, and battery life — while offering affordability as the cherry on top.

Some macOS users will naturally wonder if it may be the right time to switch to a Windows machine. But will the Snapdragon X Elite and Microsoft’s Copilot+ deliver enough value for Mac users to make the switch? Not quite yet.

A huge leap for Windows on Arm

Finally, a step in the right direction

While Apple’s M-series powered laptops are unparalleled in many respects, the company has, in the last few years, made its products less and less accessible to consumers, angling instead for creative pros who are willing to pay a lot of money for premium gear. Meanwhile, others — frustrated by the fact that there are still a handful of music production and design apps and plugins out there that either don’t run natively or aren’t properly supported on Mac — are looking to see if Windows is a better option.

Microsoft’s 12-year uphill climb to make Windows on Arm a suitable alternative to Intel and AMC x86 machines has sadly been plagued with software compatibility and performance issues. Even now, although many popular apps (such as Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Google Chrome) are optimized for Windows on Arm, many more aren’t on the list. And sadly, the emulator still isn’t cutting it, especially considering that Apple’s Rosetta emulator seems to have pulled it off effortlessly.

However, things are looking up with the Snapdragon X Elite under the hood. Its benchmarks show plenty of promise. A far cry from the disappointing legacy that the Snapdragon 8cx chipset left behind, this Arm SoC has proven itself powerful enough to outdo Intel’s hyped-up Core Ultra 7 155H as well as go toe-to-toe with Apple’s M2 Max and M3 in their single-core and multi-core performances respectively. Focusing on power efficiency, Microsoft’s Snapdragon X Elite-powered Copilot+ PCs also hope to compete with the newest MacBooks’ epic battery life.

Furthermore, the Snapdragon is being used in many premium Windows laptops, from the Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7, to top popular models from major OEMs like Dell, Lenovo, and Samsung, giving consumers a lot more options to choose from if they’re looking to switch over from Apple.

Considering all that, it’s also no surprise that more widely used apps will, in the near future, run natively on Windows on Arm. At least, that’s what Microsoft is promising.

Better, but still not there

Not quite like the M1 Macs

Despite all that, the reality is that Windows on Arm is still a ways away from truly being in the same league as the latest Macs and MacBooks. Before you switch from your Mac to a Copilot+ PC, there are several other things to consider. If you’re a huge fan of macOS’s seamless user interface and experience, you’ll likely find the Windows UI extremely clunky and cumbersome, especially now that it’s riddled with ads and focused on collecting data.

Additionally, at the time of writing, we still don’t know exactly when many of our favorite apps will go native. Chances are, creative professionals will have to wait a while before their go-to apps will run natively and be truly optimized for Windows on Arm. Adobe pledged earlier this year that its full suite of apps, including Premiere Pro, will be upgraded for Arm in July.

Based on our tests, the Snapdragon X Elite beats the MacBook Air M2 in both single- and multi-core performance. However, digging deeper, many have found the integrated GPU on the Snapdragon X Elite lacking compared to the ones on Apple’s M-series chips, according to The Verge.

Despite heavy marketing of the chip’s NPU, with exciting promises to deliver impressive AI experiences in creative workloads, these Copilot+ laptops are primarily productivity-focused, while Apple has poised its offerings to be creative workstations. The impressive performance while handling creative workloads is why many users continue to purchase and prefer Apple machines. Those hoping for a Windows on Arm alternative for video editing or 3D design might be disappointed.

There’s also the matter of power efficiency. Apple’s latest SoC series, the M3 family, delivers up to 22 hours of battery life (up to 18 hours on the MacBook Airs). Despite promises of power efficiency, none of the Snapdragon X Elite laptops we tested have yet been capable of the same longevity, with the Surface Laptop 7 maxing out at 15 hours and the Surface Pro 11 lasting 10 hours at the recommended power settings.

Price is still a huge factor

If affordability is a priority, Snapdragon offers great options

Consumers seeking a more affordable alternative to a MacBook may find a few appealing propositions (read: better value for the money) in the Snapdragon X lineup, especially if their daily workload doesn’t often involve heavy graphical tasks.

For the same price as the $999 MacBook Air M2, the cheapest and most consumer-friendly MacBook you’ll find on the market right now, you can get the latest Surface Laptop 7 with a 10-core processor and double the RAM and storage. Even the new Dell XPS 13 with a 12-core processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD is $100 less than the MacBook Air M2 with the same memory and storage.

That difference in price and value is significant enough to convince the more economical MacBook fans out there.

For heavy graphical workloads, Mac still rules

Users whose daily work involves heavy graphical tasks, such as video editors, graphics designers, and 3D animators, will likely require much more graphical prowess than the Qualcomm Adreno (Snapdragon X Elite’s integrated GPU) can offer. As we mentioned earlier, testing done by The Verge showed that none of the available Snapdragon X Elite models can keep up with the more powerful Apple M3 iGPU.

That’s just one part of the equation, too. Though many apps can run natively on Windows on Arm, not all are optimized for it as of now. Even Adobe’s Premiere Pro, one of the most widely used video editing software on the market, is still being optimized for it. If they are still working towards this new platform, imagine how many less prominent applications are not yet optimized for Arm. While Microsoft has been promising an emulation software that's just as good as Apple’s, it’s still not as efficient when handling more demanding apps.

Then there’s the matter of battery life. We have yet to see any Snapdragon X Elite laptop hit the 18-hour longevity that the M3 MacBooks have achieved in real-world testing. That isn’t to say that these Copilot+ laptops do not offer the all-day battery life they advertise, because they do; however, that difference of 3 to 8 more hours (depending on the laptop model) matters a lot to many creative professionals.

The Snapdragon X Elite is, without a doubt, an auspicious development in Microsoft’s quest to compete with Apple and finally make Windows on Arm happen. However, those hoping to switch from a MacBook to one of Microsoft’s Copilot+ laptops should reconsider. They’re not quite there yet, so stay tuned.