The Snapdragon X2 Plus benchmarks are starting to paint a clearer picture for anyone considering a Windows laptop upgrade this year. In a series of synthetic CPU and GPU runs shared by PCMag, Apple’s M4 beat the Snapdragon X2 Plus in four out of five tests.
If you’ve been waiting for Snapdragon to deliver Mac-like performance in a thin Windows notebook, this is a useful check on your expectations. That’s not the whole story, but it suggests that Macs still have a comfortable lead when measuring pure performance.
One big caveat is that these Snapdragon X2 Plus results come from a reference platform and not a finished retail laptop. Real systems can switch up or down depending on cooling, performance limits and the manufacturer’s aggressive tuning.
The scorecard favors Apple
The single-core CPU results clearly outperformed Apple. Cinebench 2024 Single Core showed 173 for M4 versus 133 for Snapdragon X2 Plus and Geekbench 6 Single Core showed 3,859 for M4 versus 3,311. If app speed and short workflows are important to you, you’ll notice this margin.
Multicore was closer. In Cinebench 2024 Multi-Core, Snapdragon was ahead. All in all, Qualcomm seems to be competitive in some sustainable tasks, but cannot prevail in the long term.
The GPU numbers increased the gap again. The M4 scored 3,949 versus 3,067 in 3DMark Steel Nomad Light and 15,580 versus 12,525 in 3DMark Solar Bay. For graphics-intensive work, these spreads can result in smoother timelines, faster effects, or higher settings.
Why these results may shift
Benchmarks are clean, but laptops are messy. A shipping design may throttle earlier, run hotter, or prioritize battery life, all of which can change how you actually feel.
Software is also important. Even powerful silicon can look mediocre if the apps you rely on aren’t optimized for it, especially in mixed environments where some tools run natively and others rely on translation.
What you should do before purchasing
Based on these results, if you need a laptop now and absolute speed is your top priority, M4 still seems like the safer choice, especially for single-core work and GPU load.
If you need Windows, wait until there are reviews for specific Snapdragon X2 Plus laptops that you can actually buy. Pay attention to repeated tests with the exact model as well as notes on continuous performance, fan noise and battery under load. These details tell you far more than any reference platform ever can.
