Watch Snapdragon Insiders in “Behind the Silicon” Ep. 1

The wait is over: Episode 1 of our new “Behind the Silicon: Snapdragon X” series is here! We’re so excited to give you all a deeper look into the groundbreaking Snapdragon® X Elite Compute Platform. And we’re thrilled to feature Snapdragon Insiders/content creators who will be providing additional commentary. 

We chatted with Sarae Karyn (@itssaraekaryn on X and @itssaraekaryn on YouTube), Kevin Breeze (@KevinBreezeTV on X and @KevinBreeze on YouTube), and Paul Smith (@Geeekystuff on X and @GeekyStuff on YouTube) to learn more about their experience with Snapdragon X Elite at the 2023 Snapdragon Summit.

 

What was it like being at Snapdragon Summit for the announcement of Snapdragon X Elite?

Sarae: It was really exciting. It was my first time going to Snapdragon Summit and everything seemed so important, with all the AI technology and everything that’s going to come with it, especially for compute. So I was just excited to be there and catch all the excitement for everything that was announced, especially Snapdragon X Elite. 

Kevin: We knew a little bit of what we were getting into, but seeing the announcement and the fact that it’s an entirely new type of chip from Qualcomm Technologies, made it especially exciting.

Paul: I genuinely got goosebumps at some of the announcements. This totally changes the landscape for laptops. Seeing the graphs about the power and efficiency of Snapdragon X Elite definitely added extra excitement as well. 

 

This platform delivers some impressive features and benchmarks. As a content creator, how will this platform change the way you work?

Kevin: Any way that my workflow is able to run smoother and faster is a great thing for me. With the added efficiency of the chip, I’m not going to have to worry as much about plugging in to charge as frequently, and even on the go I’ll be able to do heavy workloads like video editing. Plus, I’m looking forward to being able to do more generative AI locally on the device, which is a big emphasis of Snapdragon X Elite.   

Sarae: As a content creator, audiophile, and gamer, Snapdragon X Elite has a lot to offer. I think a lot of things are going to become smarter and more intuitive with AI. When we were at Snapdragon Summit we got to play with laptops powered by Snapdragon and they were wicked fast so that will be a big bonus for productivity.

Paul: Performance is a big deal for me, so I’m really excited to see what the Snapdragon X Elite can offer me for video editing and for smooth exporting. And the ability to run generative AI on device is brilliant.

You got to play with built-in Stable Diffusion on a laptop powered by Snapdragon. What were your thoughts on that experience?

Sarae: It was so cool. I use generative AI at home and even with fast internet it lags, but with laptops powered by Snapdragon it was so fast and so responsive. I gave it a random prompt, a cat with multiple arms in the ocean, and it was really impressive how fast it was able to generate the image. 

Kevin: I was impressed with how fast everything was able to run, especially with this being the first generation. If this is the baseline, it’s only going to get better from here, and it’s going to be really exciting to watch. 

Paul: The fact that it’s so fast and all on device, it doesn’t go to the cloud or anything, is amazing. As Kevin said, it’s so fast and this is just the first generation. I asked it to generate a football stadium underwater and then there it was.  

 

You met with Alex Katouzian (SVP and GM, MCX, Qualcomm Technologies) and Gerard Williams (SVP of Engineering, Qualcomm Technologies) to discuss the Snapdragon X Elite platform, what was your biggest takeaway from your conversations with them?

Kevin: My biggest takeaway was just hearing how much effort and research and trial and error goes into creating a platform like this. It takes a ton of work to get to a final product, this is something that’s years in the making. It shows me that Qualcomm Technologies is not looking to ship out a product that hasn’t really been put to the test for performance and reliability. 

Paul: Yeah, in our conversations, it was really clear that platforms like this get very thorough testing, which is exactly what you want. Hearing how the engineers are testing each piece of the platform and learning from mistakes to improve and make the platform even better was really interesting. 

Sarae: It was also cool seeing how excited the executives are about the AI portion of Snapdragon X Elite. I know everyone in tech is excited about AI, but these conversations gave us the background knowledge of everything that goes into this technology behind the scenes. It’s crazy how much testing goes into it, because as a consumer and reviewer, you only get the finished product, but at a company level it takes years of work.

 

Check out episode 1 of “Behind the Silicon” to see Kevin, Sarae, and Paul’s experience at Snapdragon Summit, and stay tuned for the next episode — there’s a lot more to learn about Snapdragon X Elite.

 

What was your favorite moment from Snapdragon Summit 2023? Head over to Discord to let us know.