(Credit: John Burek)
The hype around them ebbing and flowing for years now, Snapdragon-based laptops have been perennial breakout-tech candidates. In truth, though, until recently the vibe around them has been mostly ebb. Qualcomm and its partners haven't exactly flooded the world with machines, after all. Part of the holdup (beyond Snapdragon laptop chips' lackluster performance) has been the staccato introduction of important native-running applications for Windows on Arm, leaving some key ones reliant on emulation to work on the platform. There has been progress, and the applications are getting there (see: Adobe Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve). And 64-bit emulation has arrived for Windows 11-equipped systems. But some key programs remain absent, and no wave of apps has crashed in all at once, nor a critical mass of Snapdragon-based laptops emerged, to shift the narrative. It's just been a Surface here, a ThinkPad there. More of a drip.
On the silicon side of things, expect a sea change soon, though. Last fall, with the reveal of its upcoming Snapdragon X Elite platform (code-named “Oryon”), Qualcomm showed off reference-design laptops using a robust X Elite flagship processor that it claims (and our early, albeit controlled-environment, tests suggest) can finally compete on raw performance with chips made for thin-and-light laptops made by the Intel/AMD duopoly. An upcoming Microsoft event in May, preceding its Build conference, could see the unveiling of Snapdragon X Elite-based Surface laptops and 2-in-1s, seeing as Microsoft’s recent Surface for Business event was a pure Intel play. (Surface has been the laptop family that, to date, has most reliably hosted Qualcomm’s laptop chips.) And Qualcomm's promise of Snapdragon X Elite laptops appearing from OEMs by mid-2024 suggest that machines from other PC partners, beyond just those potential Surfaces, could be imminent. (Cristiano Amon, Qualcomm’s CEO, is giving a keynote at the Computex 2024 trade show in June, which would seem an auspicious launching pad.)
(Credit: John Burek)But what's new on the software side to change the story? One of the big applications that’s been notoriously AWOL for Windows on Arm is Google’s seminal web browser, Chrome. Microsoft’s Edge has a native version for Snapdragon, and Firefox has had an Arm-native version for many years, but Chrome…that changes only today. With the release of a Snapdragon-optimized Chrome, a big puzzle piece falls into place. And that will be a relief to Snapdragon PC users, as well as the Qualcomm-laptop-curious: Browser performance on emulated Chrome (at least as measured by in-browser benchmark tests) has not been kind to Snapdragon. Given Chrome's dominance among web browsers (according to Statista, Google's browser commands more than 60% of global market share at the moment), that's a big deal in the Windows-on-Arm world.
Ahead of this Chrome release, in a short demo in New York City, we got a chance to check out a build of the Snapdragon-optimized version on one of Qualcomm's reference machines. We were able to oversee a handful of browser-based benchmarks (one of Qualcomm's choosing, and two of our own). TLDR? Chrome is getting a lot faster on Snapdragon. Here's how the numbers shook out.
Testing the New, Optimized Chrome on Snapdragon X Elite
Qualcomm came by PCMag’s offices with a Windows 11-based Snapdragon X Elite reference-design laptop. It was pre-configured with the latest public version of the Chrome and Microsoft Edge browsers, as well as an advance build of the Snapdragon-optimized version of Chrome (125.0.6378.0). That version should start appearing today as a download option for some Snapdragon laptop users (more on that in a bit).
Speedometer 2.0
We started off the proceedings with the browser-based benchmark Speedometer 2.0. (There is a new 3.0 version of this benchmark, but the numbers that 3.0 delivers on this and other platforms are not yet telling and need further investigation and context.) We ran the benchmark in the Microsoft Edge browser, which has a native version for Snapdragon, as well as in the non-optimized version of the Chrome browser, and then in the advance version of the Snapdragon-optimized Chrome that debuts today.
(Credit: John Burek)For a little cross-platform spice, later in the day, we ran these same tests on an Asus ZenBook 14 Q425M Windows 11 machine equipped with Intel’s Core 7 Ultra 155H. Qualcomm says the 155H is the closest comparable chip to the Snapdragon X Elite in Intel’s initial line of AI-equipped laptop processors, dubbed “Meteor Lake.”
The key takeaway here is not that the ready-for-Snapdragon Chrome is outperforming the Edge browser by some gaudy margin (it doesn’t), but that Chrome is now performing at rough parity to Edge. Using the last non-optimized version of Chrome, as you can see in the chart, the Snapdragon X Elite was delivering well less than half of the performance in this benchmark.
Also interesting is the Core 7 Ultra’s result. While browser benchmarks like these don’t indicate raw computing performance for tasks like rendering video or running photo editing software, Qualcomm’s reference system with optimized Chrome (and native Edge) tops the ZenBook 14 on both the browsers we tested it on by a bit more or less than 10%, depending on the specific comparison.
JetStream 2
Next up, we chose the stalwart JetStream 2 test. This test concentrates on JavaScript and WebAssembly, and rewards quick starting and execution of code.
(Credit: John Burek)We ran the same permutations: the test on Microsoft Edge, on the non-optimized Chrome browser, and on the Snapdragon-optimized Chrome browser. We also kept the Asus Core 7 Ultra system in the mix…
We saw an almost threefold increase in score on the Snapdragon system going from current non-native Chrome to optimized Chrome. The latter score also brought the Snapdragon machine’s performance into a practical margin-of-error tie with both its own JetStream performance in Edge, and with the Intel Meteor Lake laptop’s performance on both browsers.
Basemark Web 3.0
Last up was Basemark Web 3.0, which also emphasizes JavaScript performance.
On the Snapdragon system, the new-vs.-old Chrome advantage was not quite as drastic as in the other tests, but we still saw a 64% bump from the current version of the Chrome browser to the optimized one. The new Chrome also brought the Snapdragon system right in line with its performance on Edge, and it slightly outpaced the Core 7 Ultra PC's showings.
Here Comes the Big One
What to make of an amped-up Chrome coming to Snapdragon? Don’t think of it as a shiny new rocket; it’s just now performing as it should have been all along. It won’t be turbocharged, in a relative sense, versus Edge; it'll only be significantly faster than the non-optimized Chrome, which means this release essentially gets the big browser up to speed and 2024 spec.
That's definitely a big deal in the Snapdragon space, but ask us again in six months (or maybe a little sooner) how much this software move matters in the big picture. One thing, though, shouldn’t be overlooked: Android and the Chrome browser have obvious synergies for users of Android phones. Being able to sync your Google-based life between your phone and your laptop is a staple reason many Windows/Android/Chrome loyalists stay true to the platforms. One of the hurdles to adopting a Snapdragon-based laptop, for some of these folks, may have been the sluggish Snapdragon laptops to date, paired with Chrome’s particular shortcomings under Snapdragon. Now, Chrome gets better, and potentially, the coming X Elite chips are a lot better than earlier Snapdragon breeds.
(Credit: John Burek)In a larger sense, of course, the impact of this software will be only as big as how many Snapdragon PCs actually end up on the market (and in buyers’ hands) in 2024 and beyond. We'll find out in the coming months just how many design wins Qualcomm has garnered with Snapdragon X Elite, as well as gauge the market enthusiasm for a "For real, this time!" Snapdragon laptop push. And we will be sure to put the first X Elite laptop configurations through the wringer, not just on browser-based tests like these but on our classic raw-performance benchmarks that measure the kinds of demanding and everyday workloads that many of us do outside of a browser.
How to Get the New Chrome (and Know You Got It)
The Snapdragon-optimized version of Chrome will come available today from Google as an "experimental" browser version, and it will appear as a download option only if you're looking for it from a late-model Snapdragon-based laptop. Even if you are, you may not see the option to download it right away, as Google will be meting out access to the new version of the browser gradually to users to load-balance.
(Credit: John Burek)Once you have the new version installed, you should see a chemist’s flask in the upper right of the screen, indicating the experimental version. Also, the About Google Chrome page in the browser should indicate a version that says “arm64” at the end.
(Credit: John Burek)With some persistence, you should be able to get the optimized version of Chrome onto your ThinkPad X13s Gen 1, Surface Pro 9, or other Snapdragon machine in short order, and judge for yourself if the biggest browser finally going native changes your computing world. It's a nice bonus for those who have been faithful to their Windows on Arm PCs, and table stakes for Qualcomm when its Snapdragon X Elite laptops start to hit the streets.