Qualcomm just announced two powerful new processors that excel at generative AI, one for laptops and the other for phones. As the potential applications for artificial intelligence continue to expand from text to images, video, and beyond, faster processing on your own device is becoming more important.
The Snapdragon X Elite is Qualcomm’s exciting new laptop processor, boasting best-in-class CPU performance for Windows laptops and impressive GPU speed. For phones, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 blasts by the previous generation with 30% greater speed while drawing 20% less energy from your battery.
CPU and GPU specifications are important, but with its latest release of chips, Qualcomm emphasized the AI processing power of its latest chips. With this improved performance, Qualcomm optimized several generative AI models to run locally on Snapdragon laptops and phones — and it’s claims against Intel, AMD, and Apple are impressive.
So just how fast is it at AI? Well, according to Qualcomm, the new Snapdragon X Elite chips provides 45 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) on INT4 AI benchmark tests and 30 tokens per second on Meta’s advanced Llama 2 AI model. Qualcomm says that’s 4.5 times faster than competitors. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is claimed to process 20 tokens per second, provide real-time segmentation to separate objects in an image for advanced photo processing, and run stable diffusion for image generation in less than a second.
The Snapdragon X Elite is also capable of running 13-billion parameter generative AI models on-device. For phones, 10-billion parameter models can run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Durga Malladi, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and general manager of technology planning and edge solutions, says the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is the first to support multi-modal (images, text, and more) on phones.
Beyond just raw performance, Qualcomm says its on-device AI helps keep queries and results secure, ensuring user privacy. Since your selfies, personal photos and videos, voice, and text are all used with the new multi-modal AI apps, your biometrics and personal data are potentially at risk if you upload to cloud-based AI.
While cloud-based AI is experiencing the growing pains of rapid adoption, as well as the struggles to scale up quickly enough, local AI processing can offer lower latency, less energy use, and lower cost.
Qualcomm explained this is all possible because of the synergy of technology. Several of the most popular AI models have been optimized for Snapdragon processors and make use of the CPU, GPU, NPU (neural processor), and sensing hub working together to deliver results significantly faster than the previous generation. The new chips also support superfast LPDDR5X memory to remove processing bottlenecks.
As the demand for AI increases, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite for laptops and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for phones are ready to make image generation faster, text processing quicker, and both more secure by enabling on-device processing. It will be interesting to see what the first laptops and phones that launch with Qualcomm’s new chips can do with these enhanced capabilities.
Google just dropped its latest AI model, Gemini 4 Carbon, designed to tackle complex coding jobs and cybersecurity threats. The company claims it can work through difficult engineering problems for days, finding hidden bugs and developing fixes across large codebases.
Gemini 4 Carbon also takes the top spot on Artificial Analysis' updated Intelligence Index, scoring 59 points, pushing out Claude Opus 5.5, OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra, and even its own predecessor Gemini 4 Argon.
Apple has just introduced a redesigned MacBook Pro with a few bells and whistles. The focus this time around is on a thinner and lighter build, and an upgrade to a touch-sensitive OLED screen without any ugly notch. And, in case you were wondering, there is definitely a price premium to pay for these niceties, which also include a glowing Apple logo at the back. What if you wanted to get the best that Apple has to offer? Well, the numbers are finally here.
For a mere $14,549, you can get yourself the fully kitted 16-inch MacBook Pro PROLED XDR with the beefiest laptop chip that Apple has to offer, and the best memory configuration in tow. For nearly $15,000, you treat yourself to the 16-inch version of the laptop with a nano-texture glass layer on the screen to reduce reflections and glare.
Apple has unveiled its first-ever touchscreen MacBook Pro. The company seems a bit confused about the naming, calling it the "MacBook Pro with PROLED XDR Display," which is tough to remember. If you look past that and review the full spec sheets, you might ask a genuine question: what are the differences between the touchscreen and non-touchscreen versions?
Given that Apple continues to sell both variants together, that's a genuine question. Luckily, you don't have to spend more time lining up the spec sheets side by side and hunting for differences hidden in the fine print. I took that bullet for you. Here's everything that's different between the PROLED XDR Display and the regular MacBook Pro.