Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon X Arm processor for budget PCs and laptops for $600

Qualcomm announced at CES 2025 a new single-chip platform, the Snapdragon X, designed for low-cost PCs, including mini-desktops, with a target retail price of around $600.

Image Source: Qualcomm

At the initial stage, the family of new generation chips is represented by a single Qualcomm Snapdragon X (X-26-100) model, which is produced using the 4 nm process technology. It includes eight Oryon processor cores with a clock speed of up to 3.0 GHz – the company assured that the platform is 163% more productive than competing solutions, and the level of power consumption of competing chips is 168% higher. There is a Hexagon NPU (Neural Processing Unit) module – an accelerator of artificial intelligence algorithms with a performance of 45 TOPS, which will be enough to classify computers on the new chips as Copilot+ PC. The Adreno graphics subsystem with a performance of 1.7 teraflops is enough for creating presentations, browsing the web and streaming broadcasts, but you can hardly count on games.

Snapdragon X works with LPDDR5x memory with a capacity of up to 64 GB. NVMe SSDs with PCIe 4.0 interface are supported, as well as SD 3.0 cards. The built-in display of a computer with Qualcomm Snapdragon X can have a resolution of up to QHD (2560 × 1440 pixels) with HDR10 support and a frequency of up to 120 Hz; it is possible to connect up to three external UHD displays (3840 × 2160 pixels) with a frequency of 60 Hz and HDR10 or two 5K (5120 × 2880 pixels) with 60 Hz or two UHD at 120 Hz.

The video processing unit supports H.264, HEVC (H.265) and AV1 encoding and decoding. Qualcomm Aqstic and Qualcomm AptX technologies are responsible for audio output. The built-in camera can have a resolution of up to 36 megapixels and shoot HDR video in resolutions up to 4K – ISP Qualcomm Spectra is responsible for working with the camera. There is a built-in Qualcomm Snapdragon x65 5G modem. Local wireless protocols up to Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 are supported. The set of ports for wired connections is limited to the USB 4.0 standard.

Qualcomm emphasized that the range of software for Windows with support for Arm processors is constantly growing. More than 50 AI applications supported by NPU have been released for Windows 11; 50 security applications, plus digital audio workstations (DAWs) and Virtual Studio Technology (VST) instruments. Already at the beginning of 2025, inexpensive desktop PCs for $600 on Snapdragon X will be released by the company’s largest partners: Asus, Acer, Dell, HP and Lenovo.