Qualcomm perseveres in laptops and embarks on portable consoles |Macgeneration

Laptops with ARM architecture released in recent years are struggling to convince, but that does not demotive one of their main instigators.Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 8CX Gen 3 which must significantly improve the performance of Windows Arm machines, their big weak point.

This new processor engraved more finely (5 Nm instead of 7) is supposed to have an 85 % more powerful CPU and a 60 % more powerful GPU than its predecessor, the 8CX Gen 2. Qualcomm even speaks of 60 % high performance compared toAn X86 processor competes, but without specifying the exact reference of the Intel chip.

The designer does not go so far as to compare his new product with Apple's M1 chip which is currently leading to performance debates by Watt.In fact, Qualcomm's real response to Apple will not arrive before 2023 of its own admission.Pending this new chip which must become a reference thanks to the support of Apple alumni, the Snapdragon 8CX Gen 3 is therefore there to occupy the ground.

The Competing Qualcomm Flea of the M1 will be presented within nine months

Qualcomm also hopes to make room for another market, that of (large) portable consoles.Inspired by the phenomenal success of the Switch (which uses an NVIDIA chip) and by the upcoming launch of the Steam Deck (at Puce AMD), the company offers manufacturers a new system on the name still impossible to remember, the Snapdragon G3XGen 1, to create a device of this type.

To give weight to its announcement, Qualcomm has designed a development kit in partnership with Razer that looks like nothing other than a smartphone embedded in a large controller.This kit is notably equipped with an OLED 6.65 "120 Hz screen, 5G, Wi-Fi 6th, a 1080p webcam and a USB-C port allowing the display on an external screen to be deported4K.

In addition to the question of autonomy which is not addressed, one wonders if such a device has an interest in playing games ... Android.The Steam Deck proposal is different: it is a question of playing PC games on mobility on the equivalent of a switch.In the case of the new Qualcomm project, Android games are of course already playable on mobile.At a time when "gamer" smartphones are less than € 500, the price of these future Android consoles will be decisive.