What you need to know
- X (formerly Twitter) user "WalkingCat" has posted renders on their account of what is apparently the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 14 2024 Snapdragon Edition.
- The leaked renders are not confirmed to be legitimate, but if they are, they're the first look at a Windows 11 laptop powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite CPU.
- The leaked renders show a laptop that looks a lot like the Lenovo Slim 7 (Gen 9) with Intel Core Ultra CPUs that is available now, albeit with a raised communication bar and fewer ports.
Anticipation for the launch of Windows 11 laptops powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processor (CPU) has been building for months, and we might have just received a sneak peek at one of the laptops that are expected to launch with the next version of Windows.
WalkingCat, an X (formerly Twitter) user with a history of reliable leaks, posted four renders of what they're calling the "Yoga Slim 7 14(.5) 2024 Snapdragon Edition" on their account. Of course, nothing is confirmed by Lenovo or Qualcomm, so take the leak's authenticity with caution.
Yoga Slim 7 14(.5) 2024 Snapdragon Edition pic.twitter.com/k29LupeWk6April 17, 2024
The laptop appears to have a similar design as the Intel Core Ultra-powered Lenovo Slim 7i (Gen 9) — also known as the Yoga Slim 7i (Gen 9) in markets outside of the US — that is available to buy now.
Lenovo's premium laptop design language is apparent, with rounded edges, a super-slim base, top-firing speakers flanking the keys, a Yoga keyboard with a dedicated Copilot button, and a sizable touchpad.
Going by WalkingCat's title, the Yoga Slim 7 might have a 14.5-inch display, which is a half-inch larger than that on the Slim 7i (Gen 9) available now. The Snapdragon-powered laptop also has a raised communication bar like that in the ThinkPad X1 Carbon (Gen 12) and plenty of other high-end Lenovo laptops; this usually signals an advanced camera setup.
Port selection on the leaked laptop appears to include three USB-C (likely USB4 due to Thunderbolt being an Intel technology), with a webcam shutter toggle and power button also located on the right edge.
It's unclear from the leaked renders whether that laptop features passive or active cooling, as even the Intel-powered Slim 7i (Gen 9) has an intake vent on the bottom and a discrete exhaust between the chassis and wide hinge.
Why we're so excited about Snapdragon X Elite PCs
Qualcomm's Snapdragon X platform is set to change Windows laptops in a major way when it launches in 2024. It's expected to arrive running the next major Windows update, known as Version 24H2, which will also bring major AI integration to the OS.
As we saw late last year, the Snapdragon X Elite can best Apple's M2 Max and Intel's Core i9-13980HX CPUs in single-thread performance (with less power consumption to boot). It also pulls ahead in several multi-core tests, and you can expect huge gains from the integrated GPU compared to Intel Iris Xe and AMD Radeon integrated GPUs.
The numbers in the article linked above come from Qualcomm, so you can expect some slant. However, Geekbench 6 benchmarks seem to show that the Snapdragon X Elite can even best the Apple M3 Pro CPU in multi-core scores.
Qualcomm isn't messing around, and we're expecting a laptop CPU with incredible performance and efficiency that can even run Windows games smoothly using x64 emulation.
Qualcomm doesn't stop there, and those interested in the emerging world of AI PCs likely already know about the chip's relatively massive Neural Processing Unit (NPU) performance.
The Snapdragon X Elite has an NPU with 45 TOPS of processing power, easily besting Intel Core Ultra's 10 TOPS and AMD Ryzen 8040's 16 TOPS of NPU power. While Intel and AMD have both said that their next-gen chips will have more powerful NPUs, Qualcomm is still ahead of the game with its first run of chips with hardware for specific AI enhancements.
Why is a powerful NPU important? NPUs are a new piece of hardware that is designed to take some of the load off of the CPU and GPU for AI-related tasks. As Windows laptops continue to pick up AI integrations, having a powerful NPU will become evermore critical.
It's now known that running Copilot locally on your PC will require an NPU with at least 40 TOPS of performance, which isn't achievable by the current generation of Intel Core Ultra and Ryzen 8040 CPUs in even the best AI PCs on the market today.
