My rant on a lack of fanless options:
Fanless to me: a
very constrained SoC TDP (e.g., 10W) with very low 1T SoC heat output (1-5W).
As of June 2024, not one Oryon design is fanless. Fans in Qualcomm's design. Fans in Oryon tablets. Fans in the X Plus models. For mainstream clients (i.e., computing needs
much closer to a Chromebook vs a workstation or console), fanless has a lot of benefits:
- Lower thermal output → much cooler overall
- Zero dust maintenance → most won't open a laptop
- Zero noise, always → akin to al keyboards, iOS / Android tablets, phones
- Zero concern to clear paths for fan outlets / inlets
- Fewer parts can fail (fans are up on the list of likely to fail first)
- Slightly lighter (no heatpipes, heatsinks, nor fans)
- Lower power draw (even at low RPMs, 2x fans can consume 100s of mW)
Fanless operation should a strong target for efficient devices. On a desktop, most would scoff at an power-hungry keyboard that required active cooling for "the best performance". But on laptops, we're used to the waste heat output.
And it's not just me. Qualcomm as a company used to promote its fanless designs ( emphasis mine):
Mar 2017 | Qualcomm Press Release
Each company is set to produce sleek, thin and fanless PCs running a Windows 10 experience with unparalleled LTE connectivity for an always connected, on the go experience.
Mar 2018 | Qualcomm Senior Director of Product Management
Always On, Always Connected PCs powered by Snapdragon are designed to be sleek and thin, supporting workloads for up to 20+ hours without slowing down performance. Our low-powered solution is engineered to create very little heat and doesn’t need a fan to stay cool.
Oct 2020 | Qualcomm launch video (a familiar face)
"8cx Gen 2 beats its competitors again with +18% greater system performance than a 10th generation Intel i5. At 7 Watts, our platform delivers +50% greater total system performance and +50% better battery life than competing solutions, allowing for a fanless, thin & light design, with multiple days of battery life."
Dec 2020 | Qualcomm SVP and GM of the mobile, compute and infrastructure business
“[…] the laptops these days are really moving towards mobile. The camera is super important. The audio is super important. The battery life is super important. Not having a fan is super important. Portability, thinness, connectivity, always-on always-connected, all those traits of mobile are moving to the PC.
And people say, imitation is the best form of flattery. Look at look what happened with the [Apple] M1. Their product pitch is almost a duplicate of what we've been saying for the past two or three years.”
Nov 2021 | Qualcomm Press Release & VP of Product Management
During the annual Snapdragon Tech Summit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. expanded the portfolio of solutions for Always On, Always Connected PCs with the introduction of the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform, designed to deliver the performance and exceptional experiences users deserve in premium ultra-slim and fanless laptops.
"Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 builds on the technology that has transformed the PC industry, delivering premium experiences with breakthrough performance per watt, immersive camera and audio with enhanced AI-acceleration, lightning-fast 5G connectivity, and chip-to-cloud security in thin, fanless systems."
Jan 2022 | Qualcomm 2022 CES Presentation
“… we are excited about the power efficiency opportunity of the advanced Arm architecture to enable breakthrough experiences on lightweight, fanless devices. We look forward to our ongoing collaboration with Qualcomm …” - Mike Nash, HP Chief Technologist & Global Head, Customer Experience & Portfolio Strategy, Personal Systems
QC, for years: our WoA & Chromebook SoCs are ultra-efficient → 100% fanless designs
QC, for months: our Oryon SoC has fantastic perf / W → no fanless designs?
One NUVIA OEM, HP,
was aiming for a fanless design. Even
Intel P-core CPUs are in some fanless laptops, which is egregious as
those SoCs have way too high TDPs lol.
//
Not unlike gaming at 120 Hz // driving an electric car // booting off an SSD, cool-running, performant fanless laptops are hard to appreciate before using them → once you do try it, it's kind of addicting → anything less later feels like a sad step backwards.
I appreciate fans when they're necessary. I'm a fan-atic in my desktop PC (10x 140mm fans tuned to 900RPM; 0 RPM modes all turned off to avoid heat-soak).
But just not in my laptop / keyboard / mouse.
// the other side
Qualcomm
had hinted of new 8cx SoCs even after Oryon, but unsure whether that is still true after the Arm vs Qualcomm litigation. And perhaps the smaller Oryon variants (6C / 8C) will be fanless, but after seeing the lowered clocks on the X Plus, I'm hesitant to see what else might get cut.