Linux laptop vendor TUXEDO has confirmed plans to release a Linux ARM laptop based on the Snapdragon X Elite SoC.
It recently showcased a prototype of a new ARM notebook at Computex, the annual computer event in Taiwan. Powered by the Snapdragon X Elite and running an ARM port of their Ubuntu-based TUXEDO OS with the KDE Plasma desktop.
This is the same chip that’s been in the (tech) news a lot of late as it’s powering Microsoft’s new wave of Copilot+ PCs and laptops running Windows 11 ARM. Like Apple Silicon, the X Elite has CPU, GPU, NPU and memory all on one chip, greatly bolstering performance.
While the NPU (45 TOPS) allows for gimmicky AI nonsense in Windows 11 that isn’t the real lure of these chips: it’s their performance and power usage edges closer to Apple’s M-series chips. Scoff at Apple as a company, but the engineering of Apple Silicon has raised the bar industrywide.
Qualcomm’s claims that Snapdragon X Elite rivals the base-level M3 do rely on selective, cherry-picked benchmarks (uses more power than the M3, trails it in GPU performance, lower single-core speed, much lower memory bandwidth., etc) but the fact it’s getting closer is huge.
Plus, being able to harness the benefits of this SoC with a Linux OS is really frickin’ exciting — not that I expect to be able to afford an TUXEDO ARM notebook any time soon if the price of the Windows 11 Copilot+ versions are any indicator!
Linux Support for Snapdragon
Qualcomm has written about its efforts to get support for the this chip upstreamed into mainline kernels working with the ARM specialists at Linaro.
Elsewhere, Canonical kernel engineer Juerg Haefliger is single-handedly bringing Ubuntu 24.04 LTS support to the Lenovo ThinkPad x13s, a Snapdragon 8cx (gen3) laptop preloaded with Windows 11 ARM; while the Ubuntu Asahi project works to bring Ubuntu to Apple Silicon.
And of course, Ubuntu already supports single-board computers like the Raspberry Pi which have helped popularise, promote, and pave the way for ARM as a viable Linux platform.
We’re finally moving out of the era of low-cost, low-power Linux ARM laptops like the PineBook and into a world of powerful yet power-efficient devices.
There’s plenty more work ahead for TUXEDO in order to get this device up to par for a commercial release (it’s a prototype described as alpha-quality right now), but the company doesn’t rule out the possibility of it being ready before Christmas…
Exciting stuff — but is ARM ready to rival Intel/AMD for your needs? Let me know below.