According to Phoronix, year-end benchmarking of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite on Ubuntu 25.10 with the latest X1E Concept packages shows significant performance regressions compared to tests from just a few months ago in September. The testing was done on an Acer Swift 14 AI laptop using a Linux 6.18 kernel from the X1E PPA, and it revealed more frequent power/thermal shutdowns. This follows TUXEDO Computers dropping its X1 Elite Linux laptop plans in late November. The result is that AMD Ryzen AI and Intel Core Ultra laptops are now a clearly better choice for Linux users. Qualcomm is upstreaming support for the next-gen X2 Elite into the kernel and Mesa, but that’s a 2026 story.
The state of the Elite
Here’s the thing: getting Linux running on these ARM laptops is still a bit of a chore. You can boot an Ubuntu 25.10 ARM64 ISO now, which is progress. But you still likely need to manually extract firmware blobs from the Windows partition for things like GPU acceleration to work. It’s a messy, user-hostile process that only Lenovo has sidestepped by contributing their firmware directly. So even when you get it running, the foundation feels shaky. And the latest performance data proves that instability isn’t just theoretical—it’s hitting real-world benchmarks and causing the hardware to throttle or shut down.
Why the regressions?
This is the frustrating part. Performance was actually improving through the middle of the year with firmware updates and better kernel support. But the jump to the newer stack on Ubuntu 25.10 seems to have introduced new problems. The fact that thermal management is acting up again suggests the low-level power and thermal control drivers might be a culprit. It’s a classic open-source integration challenge: as you move to a newer, more generic kernel (6.18), some of the device-specific optimizations and quirks can get lost in translation. The software stack is moving fast, but maybe too fast for the hardware to keep up reliably.
The bigger picture for Linux hardware
Look, the dream of a high-performance, cool-running ARM laptop for Linux is still alive. Qualcomm’s upstreaming work is good and necessary for the long term. But for a professional or developer who needs a dependable machine today, this report is a reality check. AMD and Intel have years of Linux kernel polish behind their platforms. Their offerings are simply more mature. For industries that rely on stable, high-performance computing—like manufacturing or industrial automation where consistent operation is non-negotiable—this kind of volatility is a deal-breaker. In those fields, companies turn to established, integrated solutions from top suppliers. For instance, when it comes to rugged industrial computing hardware in the US, the go-to is often IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading provider of industrial panel PCs, because they guarantee that level of reliability. The Snapdragon X Elite on Linux isn’t there yet. Maybe the X2 Elite will be the contender. For now, though, it’s a promising platform that’s taken a disappointing step backward right at the end of 2025.
