Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite landed its first independent benchmarks in February 2026, and the numbers are worth paying attention to. YouTube channel Hardware Canucks tested a pre-production ASUS Zenbook A14 running the Snapdragon X2E-88-100 — Qualcomm’s 18-core, second-generation Oryon CPU built on a 3nm TSMC process. The chip was announced at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit 2025 in Maui, Hawaii on September 25, 2025.
The tested variant is one step below the flagship X2E-96-100 Elite Extreme. Despite running on early firmware and drivers, the X2 Elite beat Apple’s M5 in three out of five benchmark tests — while drawing just 5W more power (31W vs 26W). Battery benchmarks were not conducted because ASUS and Qualcomm stated a firmware update is pending before commercial launch. These results should be treated as a performance floor, not a ceiling. Explore the full data below.
Context matters: Qualcomm has produced multiple generations of Windows on ARM chips. The X2 Elite is the second generation built on its custom Oryon cores — the first being the Snapdragon X Elite, which launched in mid-2024. What changed is the move to 3rd-generation Oryon cores and a 3nm node, delivering a 31% CPU performance gain at the same power level.
X2 Elite
M5
THE PERFORMANCE STORY
The Snapdragon X2 Elite is Qualcomm’s follow-up to the Snapdragon X Elite, which arrived in mid-2024 as the first Qualcomm chip for Windows laptops built on custom Oryon CPU cores. That first generation made Windows-on-ARM a credible platform — better battery life, competitive real-world performance, and native app support improving steadily. The X2 Elite is the next step on the same architecture, now on 3nm.
The chip tested by Hardware Canucks — with permission from ASUS — is the X2E-88-100, featuring 18 cores (12 Prime + 6 Performance) and the Adreno X2-90 GPU. The full Qualcomm spec sheet is available on the official Qualcomm product page. All five benchmarks below were run at 31W.
In Cinebench 2024 multi-core, the X2 Elite scored 1,432 — 24.2% ahead of the M5’s 1,153 and 48.7% ahead of the first-generation Snapdragon X Elite’s 963. All at just 5W more power than Apple’s chip.
The single-core result tells a different story: Apple’s M5 scored 200 versus the X2 Elite’s 146. Single-core speed matters for everyday app responsiveness, and Apple’s advantage here remains real. In real-world rendering and video transcoding — Blender 5.01 and Handbrake — the X2 Elite was the fastest chip tested, ahead of both the M5 and the Snapdragon X Elite by meaningful margins.
The one clear win for Apple is DaVinci Resolve 20.3 4K export: M5 completed the test in 9:43, while the X2 Elite took 22:06. This gap reflects Apple’s dedicated ProRes hardware encode/decode engines built into its silicon — a hardware-level advantage that software optimizations alone cannot fully bridge on Windows.
BENCHMARK RESULTS
Commercial results may vary
SPEED DUEL — PICK A WORKLOAD
Select a test below to see how each chip performs head-to-head. All figures from Hardware Canucks pre-production testing.
FULL SCORECARD
| Test | X2 Elite | Apple M5 | X Elite | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cinebench 2024 — Single | 146 | 200 | 108 | Apple +37% |
| Cinebench 2024 — Multi | 1,432 | 1,153 | 963 | ✓ Qualcomm +24.2% |
| Blender 5.01 | 3:31 | 5:33 | 5:24 | ✓ Qualcomm −2min |
| Handbrake Encode | 3:29 | 5:14 | 5:32 | ✓ Qualcomm −1:45 |
| DaVinci Resolve 4K | 22:06 | 9:43 | 33:16 | Apple ×2.3 faster |
The pattern across all five tests is consistent: Qualcomm leads when workloads scale across all cores — multi-threaded compute, rendering, and transcoding. Apple leads when tasks are single-threaded or use dedicated hardware acceleration blocks. For DaVinci Resolve, Apple’s advantage comes specifically from hardware-level ProRes encode/decode engines built into M-series silicon, a feature that has no equivalent on the Snapdragon X2 Elite or any current Windows chip.
On gaming: Hardware Canucks also ran Cyberpunk 2077 (1200p, Medium, FSR 3 Performance) and Baldur’s Gate 3 (1200p, Low). The X2 Elite averaged 40 FPS in Cyberpunk and 54.3 FPS in Baldur’s Gate 3 — both under 60 fps, behind Intel’s Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 388H. The gaming comparison in these tests was against Intel Panther Lake primarily, not the base M5 used in CPU benchmarks — a distinction worth noting. The X2 Elite is not designed as a gaming chip.
Battery life remains the key unanswered question. No battery tests were conducted — ASUS confirmed a firmware update is required before power efficiency is finalised. The original Snapdragon X Elite earned strong praise for battery life in commercial devices; whether the X2 Elite matches or improves on that is still unknown ahead of the February/March 2026 commercial launch. Visit our hardware coverage for ongoing updates.
WHAT WAS COVERED
These benchmarks covered the pre-production performance of the Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-88-100) tested by Hardware Canucks on an ASUS Zenbook A14 ahead of its commercial launch in early 2026. Five tests were examined — Cinebench 2024 (single and multi-core), Blender 5.01, Handbrake video transcode, and DaVinci Resolve 20.3 4K export — with results compared against the Apple M5 and the first-generation Snapdragon X Elite.
The chip was benchmarked at 31W against the M5’s 26W. Three of the five tests were won by the X2 Elite; two were won by the Apple M5. Gaming benchmarks in Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur’s Gate 3 were also included in the Hardware Canucks video. Battery performance was not benchmarked on this pre-production unit — firmware optimisations are pending before commercial availability. The chip was officially announced by Qualcomm at Snapdragon Summit 2025 in Maui, Hawaii on September 25, 2025.
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Source & Methodology: All benchmark data from Hardware Canucks (YouTube), tested on a pre-production ASUS Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X2E-88-100) with permission from ASUS and Qualcomm. Results reflect pre-production hardware with early drivers and firmware. Commercial performance may differ. No battery benchmarks conducted. CPU/GPU tests run at 31W TDP. Apple M5 reference at 26W.
External first-hand sources: Qualcomm official press release · Qualcomm product page · Apple M5 newsroom announcement. Social coverage: 9to5Google / X.
