Snap finally revealed a new version of its intriguing Specs AR glasses this week during AWE 2026, but kept many things from the actual release date — "expected" this fall — and the type of chips in the device to itself.

CEO Evan Spiegel called the new glasses "the beginning of a new era in computing." But what's powering this new era?

The Snap Specs are powered by two Snapdragon processors that do all the computing. One of them powers the display and visualizations while the other is responsible for the computing power.

However, Snap refused to disclose which Snapdragon chips are in the glasses. While at AWE, I asked both a Snap engineer and one of their spokespeople. Each reiterated that the Specs use Snapdragon chips.

But which one?

More information was promised closer to the actual release of the glasses "this fall."

Qualcomm, which makes the Snapdragon chips, had a presence at AWE, and I was able to ask VP of XR Ziad Asghar which of its chips were being used in the glasses. He demurred but did say that the processors are part of the company's AR family of products.

Notably, while the just-announced Snapdragon Reality Elite chip is technically the third generation of Qualcomm's XR lineup, it won't be featured in the Specs. Asghar said that the Reality Elite is for higher-end MR products like Samsung's Galaxy XR headset and the Xreal Project Aura glasses, which do feature the new SoC. Specs, apparently, are not considered part of that lineup.

"The device that Snap has is actually super exciting," Asghar told me, "I would say it's a different category of device."

But will Specs already be behind the eight-ball when it comes to processing power when they launch?

Which chip could it be?

All previous, chunkier versions of the Snap Specs have been powered by tandem Snapdragons, and given Ziad specifically said "AR Family," I'm thinking it may be the Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 (or some modified version of it), which was announced at AWE 2025. In fact, several devices utilize the AR chip, including the Meta Quest 3S, Rokid Glasses, and RayNeo X3 Pro glasses.

Unlike Qualcomm's mobile processors, which see upgrades on an annual basis, the AR and XR lineup has been slower to update.

The Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, used in the Samsung Galaxy XR, for example, was announced in 2024. It's now being replaced by the Reality Elite, which will likely find its way into the next Galaxy XR headset.

I was told that the previous versions of Specs use an "older solution," the AR chip. Presumably that means the new Specs utilize a newer chip. However, Qualcomm hasn't announced any other XR or AR chips recently beyond the AR+ and Reality Elite.

Snap would not confirm if Specs have a customized chipset, and Qualcomm deferred to Snap regarding announcing which silicon it uses.

Right now, the assumption is that Snap is using a customized version of the AR+1 Gen 1 chipset or possibly a new generation of it, though I doubt that since Qualcomm would want to announce those chips, especially considering all of its "collaborator" companies that would use said SoC.

Still, it's possible Qualcomm could reveal a new AR chip in September or October, when it holds its annual Snapdragon Summit where we typically see the new mobile SoCs such as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 announced.

For now, Snap has left us with more questions than answers, except the Vision Pro-esque pricing, that we do know.

More from Tom's Guide

• Best of AWE 2026: The top gadgets that show us the future of XR
• Here's what the Snap Specs look like, as modelled by Jack Harlow, Imogen Heap and more
• Tested: Xreal Aura DOES work with Nintendo Switch over USB-C — they won’t tell me how they did it, but I think Snapdragon Reality Elite and Android XR is the way

Nope, it’s not called Snapdragon XR Gen 3, but Qualcomm did bring something big to the smart glasses party in its Snapdragon Reality Elite chip. And yes, this is the chip that is running inside Xreal’s Project Aura that I tested back at Google I/O.

In the company’s own words, it is set to bring “spatial computing into the AI era,” but I would say its real superpower is in unlocking my dream future of blurring those lines between the best VR headsets and smart glasses into one wearable.

Qualcomm (and I) know that ever since the end of the pandemic, the amount of people buying VR headsets has dropped and the appetite for that spatial tech in something the size of a pair of specs has grown massively. People really want to take their XR on the road without looking like a glasshole.

And with huge improvements to the performance and power efficiency, alongside a 160% boost in AI performance, this is the chip that can get us there. Let me explain.

By the numbers

The first thing I noticed during the briefing is that this is much more than a generational leap — it’s a whole reinvention with a new target in mind. Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 was solid in the likes of the Meta Quest 3 and Samsung Galaxy XR, but Qualcomm came with a new mission: turboboost everything, while making it much more efficient and cooler for different, smaller form factors.

On the performance end, you’ve got the ability to render a 4.4k resolution picture per eye with ray tracing thanks to that 60% faster GPU, and a 30% zippier CPU will keep app opens lightning quick too. There’s also a 10% improvement in latency between your hand and the screen, and new enhancements to video see-through (VST) improve the speed of tracking too.

As for the AI side of things, Snapdragon Reality Elite gives it the full beans with a 160% improvement in NPU performance — making it capable of running a full-blown large visual model (asking questions about/taking action on things you see in the world around you) with around a 1.7-second latency between asking and it starting to work.

Go puck yourself

All that’s fair and good, but if I’m being real, it’s that 20% longer battery life and the ability to run a whopping 12-degrees Celsius cooler that’s the big news for me. That’s the real key to unlocking a VR experience in a pair of glasses.

I was trying to figure out how Xreal was pulling off the impressive performance and power efficiency pairing I saw in Project Aura, and turns out the answer was right under my nose the entire time — this chip was in that puck!

But talking to Qualcomm some more, it’s clear this is a “hedging their bets” moment for the company, as the chip is versatile in how it can be used. Either it can go into all-in-one XR devices (maybe a Meta Quest 4? …provided it hasn’t been canned) or what the company is calling “disaggregated XR devices.”

This is a fancy way of saying “smart glasses” with the compute puck. Of course there’s still a fan in Project Aura’s puck, so cooling challenges remain, and this is still glasses-with-a-cable coming off of them because of it.

But we’ve now got the primo piece of silicon that can start to blend the worlds of VR headsets and AR glasses together for sure.

'That sweet-spot Goldilocks product'

When I spoke to Qualcomm on the briefing, I asked if this chip puts the company on the path towards taking that VR headset experience and stuffing into a pair of glasses. And while they’re keen to emphasize that “there’s still a place” for VR headsets, the company sees an “eventual convergence” of the two.

“If you look at the things Meta, Google and Snapchat have done, there’s very much a desire to make that sweet-spot Goldilocks product,” the rep added. And given Qualcomm has yearlong agreements with all of them, as well as investing in waveguide displays for glasses heavily, it’s all coming together nicely.

It’s what I’ve wanted for years — only to see limitations in the hardware, the software, and an execution problem when it comes to spatial computing (namely that it’s not as useful as actual computing or just using your phone).

With Reality Elite, the hardware problem goes a long way towards being fixed. With a new developer platform packed with software modules, compatibility with multiple AI systems and even white label hardware to test it on (the Snapdragon START program), that’s the software problem.

And hopefully the execution problem is fixed in due course alongside this, as more and more people flock to XR. The future’s bright, and I can’t wait to see it.

More from Tom's Guide

• I tested Google’s “Intelligent Eyewear,” and found the smart glasses that will defeat Ray-Ban Meta
• Meet X By XREAL — I’m testing the MacBook Neo of AR glasses that people can actually afford
• Windows laptops are entering their MacBook Neo era, but is Windows 11 actually ready for it? 8GB of RAM has me worried

I've been testing all the best smart glasses and VR headsets for over five years now, and no time has been more exciting for this space than right now. I'm heading to AWE 2026 (my second year attending), and something feels different about this one — almost as if we're about to see something transformative.

As you can see in our best of AWE 2025 awards, this show isn't usually about the big hardware announcements; it's about all the smaller innovations that will come together to build that breakthrough pair of glasses that change the face of computing. This year, I think the stars are aligning, and we're going to see what happens when all of this comes together.

And after watching Nvidia "reinvent the PC" with RTX Spark, it's doubly fascinating because people are starting to offer differing views on the future of computing. Something big is going to happen in Long Beach next week, and here are my three predictions about what it will be.

We get a first real look at Snap Specs

It was confirmed at AWE last year that Snap's Spectacles developer project is finally going to become a consumer product in 2026. And now, CEO Evan Spiegel is back with another keynote named "making computing more human."

We've seen the slow build to this moment over the past 12 months, from me testing key updates made to Snap OS to make it ready for the public, to Snap and Qualcomm officially teaming up for the "future of specs." I believe everything is in place, and we may get our first true look at the hardware design.

It will be fascinating to see how Snap has addressed the key challenge of cramming so much computing power into something you're comfortable wearing all day long (without a puck attached either).

And as former VP of hardware Scott Myers told Tom's Guide, they will be "substantially smaller." Hopefully, we get to see the fruits of their labor!

Qualcomm brings new Snapdragon silicon to power the future of Android XR

And speaking of that Qualcomm x Snap love-in for the specs, Qualcomm's SVP of XR Ziad Asghar will be taking the stage again in a keynote titled "The era of personal AI and endless realities."

It's a bold title, and if you remember last year, Asghar hosted the keynote and announced the Snapdragon AR1+ Gen 1 silicon for local AI on smart glasses. So Ziad has previous of attending AWE to announce new chips, Snap Specs are coming this year, and on top of that, Xreal's Project Aura is launching soon, and nobody will confirm the Snapdragon chip inside that.

So it got me thinking... If there's a new chip, what will that new chip be? And I turned my attention to the Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2, which has been around for a good couple of years now. Throw in a couple leaks of a so-called "Project Matrix," and I'm getting Gen 3 vibes — both to power the Snap Specs and possibly inside that Project Aura compute puck too.

Again, this may just be a wild prediction I've had since a few months back that will get shot down. But with the new crop of devices coming this fall, it feels like the right time to speed up that performance and beef up the power efficiency.

The smart glasses war starts to heat up

On the AR glasses side of things, the battle has heated up to the point where lawyers got involved! Viture and Xreal have been trading blows at the cutting edge of innovation — widening that field of view and offering more spatial experiences built right in.

But the next challenge is going to be one that the MacBook Neo spurred: value for money. So far, RayNeo has dominated with its $299 Air 4 Pro AR glasses, and we already know Xreal is responding with its same-priced X By Xreal specs. Will this be the moment we see a first glimpse of how Viture could be responding?

And it doesn't matter who comes out on top because at the end of the day, we win. These companies duking it out and offering more bang for your buck is great for us!

Then there's the AI glasses side of it... Over on this side of things, we're heading in two clear directions, and it'll be up to us to decide which one wins with our wallets:

• All-encompassing agentic AR: Qualcomm's super strength is having a chip in pretty much every kind of device you use. This kind of data grabbing is significant in personalizing an AI and getting it to do work for you, which you can see on a heads-up waveguide display in front of you. Throw in multi-modal capabilities with a camera, and the possibilities are huge!
• Making smart glasses less cringe (and creepy): Conversely, especially with Meta silently adding facial recognition code to its smart glasses, you're seeing increased (and very genuine) worries that we're about to enter Black Mirror-levels of surveillance and privacy invasion with something like this. So other companies are aiming for something more focused, simpler, and with privacy in mind (like Vonder).

Outlook

If these three things happen (and that's a big if), then we may be on the precipice of starting to see spatial computing make sense as the new way of doing things. So far, it's been a nice-to-have — a fun way of messing about with your apps.

But things could very well change with new hardware running new silicon and innovations from smaller players with big ideas. It's one of the reasons why I love covering this exciting space.

Will it all be enough to outrun Apple to its first smart glasses (expected early 2027)? That remains to be seen.

More from Tom's Guide

• I lived in the Viture Beast for 10,000 miles, and it just ruined other AR glasses for me
• I flew over 10,000 miles with Asus ROG Xreal R1 smart glasses — here are 2 things I love about them (and 3 I don’t)
• I tested Google’s “Intelligent Eyewear,” and found the smart glasses that will defeat Ray-Ban Meta

Instead of a black square case with an Intel or AMD chip inside, with the Ascent QN10, Asus is doing things differently — both with its design and its silicon.

Unlike with its Intel-powered NUC mini PCs or AMD-powered ExpertCenter ones, the Ascent QN10 is the first to use Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, specifically the Snapdragon X2 Elite. As such, Asus has given this mini PC a sleek silver case with an anodized aluminum finish as opposed to the black plastic it uses on others.

At Computex 2026, I got a chance to see and hold the newly unveiled Ascent QN10 in person. While I wasn’t able to fully test it just yet, based on our previous benchmark testing of Snapdragon X2 Elite laptops, I’m excited to see what this chip can do when unleashed in an Asus mini PC for the first time.

The new Asus Ascent QN10 is so much more than the chip powering it though. Here are my initial impressions after some one-on-one time with it away from the crowds on the show floor.

Asus Ascent QN10 Specs

Sleek, small — and silver

At just 5.1 x 5.1 x 1.5 inches, the Ascent QN10 is smaller than some of the other Asus mini PCs I’ve reviewed in the past like the tall variant of the NUC 14 Pro. It’s no longer cube-shaped either, nor is it rectangular like the new Asus NUC 16 Pro. Instead, what we have here is a perfectly uniform square block with ports on the front and back and vents on either side.

Speaking of ports, there are two ultra-fast USB4 ones right on the front of the Ascent QN10 that support speeds of up to 40 Gbps, can output video via DisplayPort 1.4 and also offer Power Delivery. Right next to them, you get a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack and two USB-A ports for connecting your accessories.

Personally, I’m looking forward to how you can grab two portable monitors or even a pair of the best smart glasses for some extra screen real estate in a pinch. Likewise, having these faster ports up front is great for transferring data to and from an external hard drive or even your smartphone.

Asus has done something incredibly clever with the Ascent QN10’s cooling, too. While the vents that bring in cool air on the left side form a dense, uninterrupted block of vertical slits, the exhaust grills on the right side are physically split by a horizontal strip of aluminum. The reason for this is pretty interesting.

Since the Ascent QN10 uses a blazing-fast PCIe Gen 5 SSD which tends to run hotter, Asus added a second internal fan just to cool it. To avoid having the heat from the SSD and CPU mixing together, that physical gap on the right panel keeps the exhaust channels isolated. So cool fresh air comes in all at once on the left but gets separated on the way out.

Then on the back of the Ascent QN10, we still have a barrel port connector for power along with another USB4 port, two more USB-A ports, HDMI 2.1, and a fast 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port. Overall, this mini PC has a phenomenal mix of front and rear connectivity. At the same time, despite its small size, it can drive up to four 4K displays simultaneously as well.

We’re definitely going to have to get an Ascent QN10 in for testing, but so far, it looks like a promising and powerful mini PC. There is one catch though: it’s missing a useful feature you'll find on almost all of Asus’ other mini PCs.

No hiding this one

When you flip the Ascent QN10 over, things look slightly different than they would on Asus’ NUC or ExpertCenter mini PCs. There isn’t a latch to quickly gain access to its internals, nor are there brackets to attach a VESA-mounting plate.

Instead, there are four white feet around the vents in the middle of the Ascent QN10 with screws at each corner. You can certainly open this mini PC up, but you will need a screwdriver to do so. While you can’t add more RAM due to how Qualcomm’s Snapdragon architecture is engineered, there are dual M.2 slots and both support up to 2TB for a total of 4TB of storage when fully equipped.

Now, it wasn’t the non-upgradeable RAM or the QN10 not having a toolless design that surprised me most; it was how you can’t VESA-mount this mini PC. One of the perks of using one of the best mini PCs is that — for the most part — you can usually mount them behind your monitor. Doing so gives you the space-saving benefits of an all-in-one computer like an iMac but at a fraction of the price and with more flexibility.

Given its sleek silver design and anodized aluminum case, though, I think Asus wants its first Snapdragon-powered mini PC to sit front and center on your desk. That’s alright with me, but I do wish Asus had included an integrated fingerprint reader on the power button or even next to it for faster logins. Since the Ascent QN10 is the kind of mini PC you can't hide away behind a monitor, having biometric security right at your fingertips would have been a nice touch.

Only AI will tell

I’m glad that Asus gave me a chance to see and hold the Ascent QN10 before its official release. However, there’s only so much I can glean from it without having it powered on and connected to a monitor.

Besides its sleek design and the premium components inside, the big sell here is the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU. It features 80 TOPS and is powerful enough to run AI agents like OpenClaw, Hermes, or Claude Desktop directly on the Ascent QN10. With Qualcomm’s AI Hub, it should be easy enough for even beginners to get started running AI locally. Since this mini PC is ARM and not x86-based, it should be a whole lot quieter and cooler when doing so too.

A few more questions remain as well, like how much the Ascent QN10 will actually cost when it releases. For now, though, I think this mini PC has the potential to be a great Mac mini M4 alternative for Windows users who are looking to get started with AI agents.

Stay tuned, as I’m definitely calling in one of these for review.

• I tried the new ROG NUC 16 and Asus’ upgraded mini gaming PC is complete overkill — but in the best way possible
• All 8 laptops launching with Nvidia RTX Spark this fall and what they can do
• I held the MacBook Neo in one hand and the new XPS 13 in the other — and Dell’s $699 laptop is surprisingly lighter

We've reached day 2 of Computex 2026, and from holding every Nvidia RTX Spark laptop to comparing all the new budget systems competing with the MacBook Neo, I have so much to update you on!

Beyond that, I got to talk to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about Spark, properly tested the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip in the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ (spoiler alert: AMD gaming handhelds are cooked), and went on a mission to find every budget laptop that competes with the MacBook Neo.

But that's not all, as my team is out here too — running around the exhibition center and finding all the best (and weirdest) tech of Computex. So follow along with us for all the latest.

Read the latest from Computex

• I just tested Nvidia RTX Spark laptops for video editing, gaming and AI — and the MacBook Pro is in trouble
• I held the MacBook Neo in one hand and the new XPS 13 in the other — and Dell’s affordable laptop is surprisingly lighter
• I just tested Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra — Nvidia RTX Spark brings life to one of the best laptops I’ve ever tried
• I spoke to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about RTX Spark — he is ‘willing to work’ on an RTX gaming handheld, N2X and N3X are already planned and the chip is 'more like R2D2’ than a laptop CPU
• I just tested the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — Intel Arc G3 is a breakthrough for handheld gaming, but at what cost?
• I thought Asus' massive 32-inch OLED would be my favorite Computex 2026 monitor — but I found one that was even better
• I tested the Acer Predator Atlas 8, and played a game Intel told me not to — the numbers are staggering

LIVE UPDATES

Computex is still going strong

Hey, all! Our Computex 2026 coverage is going strong as we're on the ground in Taipei checking out the latest and greatest from the computing world. Keep it locked here four all of our live updates and hands-on impressions.

RTX Spark put to the test

We've had the opportunity to put Nvidia's RTX Spark to the test for video editing, gaming, and AI, and the results are... impressive. Now, the obvious caveat is that we don't know what these machines will cost once they arrive — but it should make Apple and its MacBook Pro a little more than nervous.

Here's what my colleague Jason had to say after he'd spent some time with Nvidia's new chip: "With Microsoft in tow, working in lockstep to rebuild Windows 11 for Nvidia's agentic vision for the future of computing, these are going to be some truly mighty notebooks that may very well revolutionize the Windows laptop and truly stand on their own as the future of computing."

• Read the full story: I just tested Nvidia RTX Spark laptops for video editing, gaming and AI — and the MacBook Pro is in trouble

MSI debuts 'Triple Mode' monitor

This right here is the MSI MPG OLED 322URDX36. It's the first 31.5-inch, 4K 360Hz gaming monitor on the market to feature the 'Triple Mode' configuration technology.

It lets gamers switch freely between 4K 360Hz, 2K 520Hz, and FHD 680Hz based on their preferences — meeting the specific performance demands of various game genres.

The monitor rocks a peak HDR brightness of 1,500 nits and integrates an AI Care Sensor that "leverages accurate human detection to provide real-time OLED panel protection without compromising user privacy." Whatever that means.

Could Microsoft be building the most exciting RTX Spark laptop?

Microsoft will be facing down the MacBook Pro with the Surface Laptop Ultra later this year, it's one of the first eight laptops to arrive with Nvidia's RTX Spark on board and it could be seriously impressive.

Microsoft claims this will be most powerful Surface it's ever built and there are a few specs we are already pretty confident about. For starters, it has a 15-inch mini-LED PixelSense Ultra display that can reportedly reach 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness. There's also a full set of ports, including HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack.

The Surface Laptop Ultra will also reportedly have “all-day” battery life and you can expect it to come in Platinum and Nightfall finishes.

• Read more: Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra packs an Nvidia Spark chip — and it could be a MacBook Pro killer

Intel Arc G3 steps up against AMD

Intel Arc G3 and G3 Extreme are really bringing the heat with a monstrous integrated GPU and XeSS 3, seemingly delivering some of the best handheld gaming experiences you can get.

We've checked out the Acer Predator Atlas 8 and the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ here at Computex already, and both have impressed us with their smooth performance.

This is a huge win for Intel, which has, up until now, played second fiddle to AMD and its near-dominance over the handheld space.

MacBook Neo has competition from Dell

We just got to go hands-on with Dell's new XPS laptop line but one device in particular stood out: the new Dell XPS 13. Thin, light and affordable, you know where this is going. We have another MacBook Neo competitor in our midst.

The Dell XPS 13 does have a few nice extras you don't get on the Neo, like a backlit keyboard, a touchscreen and two full-featured USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 ports with one on each side. Stay tuned for our full hands-on but so far, I'm quite impressed.

A mesmerizing laptop

Laptops tend to look similar, which is why the Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Vincent van Gogh Edition stands out. Adorned with the troubled artist's work on the lid, it’s certainly a conversation starter. The fact that it’s built around a Prestige 14 Flip AI+ means you’re getting quite the workhorse here, too.

But what about the price? It’s the one question nobody can really answer, given how RAMageddon has put the whole computing market in flux.

To hazard a guess, given that the current Prestige sells for $1,299 and this is a more powerful special-edition machine, we bet it could be around $2,499. Of course, we'll have to wait and see what the actual price is.

8 laptops confirmed to launch in the fall with RTX Spark

Nvidia's RTX Spark chip is already slated to appear in a bunch of laptops arriving this fall, including a new Surface Laptop from Microsoft. Following on from the laptops, expect to see it appearing in mini PCs and small form-factor from the likes of Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Acer and Gigabyte.

Powered by the new chip, these laptops are poised to deliver a thin-and-light form factor coupled with elite battery life and enough power for desktop-class AI development and heavy video editing. They'll also be pretty good when it comes to gaming, too.

The only question is what will the pricing be for these new machines?

• Read more: All 8 laptops launching with Nvidia RTX Spark this fall — and what they can do

The MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ leaves the ROG Xbox Ally in the dust

Intel Arc G3 handhelds are the talk of the town here at Computex 2026, and I just got an early hands-on with the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+. In short, believe the hype — this is the next generation of gaming on the go, unlike anything you’ve seen before.

Of course, a lot of this comes from that new silicon, which copies a lot of Panther Lake’s homework, including that monster integrated GPU with XeSS 3 support to deliver some blistering frame rates (more on those later) while being much more power efficient than any AMD-filled handheld I’ve tested.

But the secret sauce here is MSI’s DNA — learning from previous Claws and dramatically upgrading the design, vastly improving airflow to keep it cool, bringing a gorgeous new display, tweaking the ergonomics and tactility of the vibration, and making it even easier to upgrade.

The Asus Xbox Ally X20 isn’t just another special edition handheld

We’ve already seen a ton of new handheld gaming PCs here at Computex 2026. Instead of going that route, Asus has decided to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its Republic of Gamers (ROG) subbrand with a special edition of the ROG Xbox Ally X.

Dubbed the ROG Xbox Ally X20, this new device uses (mostly) the same hardware as last year’s Xbox-themed handheld. You still get the powerful performance of AMD’s Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip, 24GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

While not technically a new device, Asus has made some fundamental changes under the hood and has also given the handheld a regal makeover, with hints of gold throughout its design.

The best of Computex 2026

Our best of Computex 2026 round-up is live! There, we detail the 17 products that impressed us the most during our time at the convention.

From Nvidia’s biggest chip release in the last 20 years, Intel revolutionizing handheld gaming, mind-blowing monitors, and actual value-for-money laptops to take on the MacBook Neo, we’ve fallen in love with so much tech here in Taipei!

Computex 2026 is fully underway, and besides asking Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about RTX Spark, I just tested the laptops of the future from Team Green!

But that's not all, as Intel's having a ball dunking on AMD with its Arc G3 gaming handheld chip in the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+, we've been going hands-on with every Windows laptop that's facing off with the MacBook Neo (including the new Dell Xps 13), and much more.

Follow along with us for live updates from the ground, and keep us bookmarked throughout the week. You're going to want to see what we're up to!

Read the latest from Computex

• Nvidia RTX Spark is here, and it's going to 'reinvent the pc' — here's everything you need to know about this all-new laptop chip
• I spoke to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang about RTX Spark — he is ‘willing to work’ on an RTX gaming handheld, N2X and N3X are already planned and the chip is 'more like R2D2’ than a laptop CPU
• All 8 laptops launching with Nvidia RTX Spark this fall — and what they can do
• I just tested the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ — Intel Arc G3 is a breakthrough for handheld gaming, but at what cost?
• I gamed for 250 hours on AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE — it’s a $549 nightmare for Nvidia’s RTX 5060 Ti
• I thought Asus' massive 32-inch OLED would be my favorite Computex 2026 monitor — but I found one that was even better
• I just held the most beautiful laptop, but I’m not sure Vincent van Gogh would be happy with his name connected to AI
• I tested the Acer Predator Atlas 8, and played a game Intel told me not to — the numbers are staggering

LIVE UPDATES

Our first in-person look at RTX Spark

The big news of the conference so far is, of course, the RTX Spark and we've just got our first look at actual devices running Nvidia's chips from MSI.

They look even better in person than they did during Jensen's keynote yesterday. Hopefully, we'll be able to go hands-on with laptops, desktops and mini PCs running Nvidia RTX Spark chips soon.

• Read more: Nvidia RTX Spark is here, and it's going to 'reinvent the pc' — here's everything you need to know about this all-new laptop chip

8 laptops confirmed to launch in the fall with RTX Spark

Nvidia's RTX Spark chip is already slated to appear in a bunch of laptops arriving this fall, including a new Surface Laptop from Microsoft. Following on from the laptops, expect to see it appearing in mini PCs and small form-factor from the likes of Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, MSI, Acer and Gigabyte.

Powered by the new chip, these laptops are poised to deliver a thin-and-light form factor coupled with elite battery life and enough power for desktop-class AI development and heavy video editing. They'll also be pretty good when it comes to gaming, too.

The only question is what will the pricing be for these new machines?

• Read more: All 8 laptops launching with Nvidia RTX Spark this fall — and what they can do

Reporting from the show floor!

Computex is the biggest computing industry event of the year, and in among the flagship keynotes it's always fun to roam the halls and see what's on offer.

So far this year, we've spied a holographic PC that uses AI to answer your questions, a custom-built GTA VI PC that could be outdated before the game itself actually arrives and the forthcoming Wireless Touchpad Keyboard from sustainable laptop company Framework.

Intel Arc G3 steps up against AMD

Intel Arc G3 and G3 Extreme are really bringing the heat with a monstrous integrated GPU and XeSS 3, seemingly delivering some of the best handheld gaming experiences you can get.

We've checked out the Acer Predator Atlas 8 and the MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ here at Computex already, and both have impressed us with their smooth performance.

This is a huge win for Intel, which has, up until now, played second fiddle to AMD and its near-dominance over the handheld space.

MacBook Neo has competition from Dell

We just got to go hands-on with Dell's new XPS laptop line but one device in particular stood out: the new Dell XPS 13. Thin, light and affordable, you know where this is going. We have another MacBook Neo competitor in our midst.

The Dell XPS 13 does have a few nice extras you don't get on the Neo, like a backlit keyboard, a touchscreen and two full-featured USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 ports with one on each side. Stay tuned for our full hands-on but so far, I'm quite impressed.

A mesmerizing laptop

Laptops tend to look similar, which is why the Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Vincent van Gogh Edition stands out. Adorned with the troubled artist's work on the lid, it’s certainly a conversation starter. The fact that it’s built around a Prestige 14 Flip AI+ means you’re getting quite the workhorse here, too.

But what about the price? It’s the one question nobody can really answer, given how RAMageddon has put the whole computing market in flux.

To hazard a guess, given that the current Prestige sells for $1,299 and this is a more powerful special-edition machine, we bet it could be around $2,499. Of course, we'll have to wait and see what the actual price is.

Could Microsoft be building the most exciting RTX Spark laptop?

Microsoft will be facing down the MacBook Pro with the Surface Laptop Ultra later this year, it's one of the first eight laptops to arrive with Nvidia's RTX Spark on board and it could be seriously impressive.

Microsoft claims this will be most powerful Surface it's ever built and there are a few specs we are already pretty confident about. For starters, it has a 15-inch mini-LED PixelSense Ultra display that can reportedly reach 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness. There's also a full set of ports, including HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack.

The Surface Laptop Ultra will also reportedly have “all-day” battery life and you can expect it to come in Platinum and Nightfall finishes.

• Read more: Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra packs an Nvidia Spark chip — and it could be a MacBook Pro killer

Asus' new laptops could include a MacBook Neo rival

Asus has revealed its new laptop family at Computex and while we already know about the RTX Spark-equipped ProArt machines, but another device has caught my eye.

Asus is launching the new Zenbook 14 with base-level specs that include a Snapdragon X1-26-100 processor with 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage. Depending on the ongoing RAM crisis, Asus may be able to price this laptop to compete with the MacBook Neo.

For those that want a bit more power, the Zenbook 14 will also come with AMD and Intel configurations too.

MSI debuts 'Triple Mode' monitor

This right here is the MSI MPG OLED 322URDX36. It's the first 31.5-inch, 4K 360Hz gaming monitor on the market to feature the 'Triple Mode' configuration technology.

It lets gamers switch freely between 4K 360Hz, 2K 520Hz, and FHD 680Hz based on their preferences — meeting the specific performance demands of various game genres.

The monitor rocks a peak HDR brightness of 1,500 nits and integrates an AI Care Sensor that "leverages accurate human detection to provide real-time OLED panel protection without compromising user privacy." Whatever that means.

RTX Spark put to the test

We've had an opportunity to put Nvidia's RTX Spark to the test when it comes to video editing, gaming and AI and the results are...impressive. Now, the obvious caveat here is that we don't know what these machines are going to cost once they do arrive — but it should serve to make Apple and its MacBook Pro a little more than nervous.

Here's what my colleague Jason had to say after he'd spent some time with Nvidia's new chip: "With Microsoft in tow, working in lockstep to rebuild Windows 11 for Nvidia's agentic vision for the future of computing, these are going to be some truly mighty notebooks that may very well revolutionize the Windows laptop and truly stand on their own as the future of computing."

• Read the full story: I just tested Nvidia RTX Spark laptops for video editing, gaming and AI — and the MacBook Pro is in trouble

The MacBook Neo has shaken up the budget Windows laptop space, and Qualcomm is responding with Snapdragon C at Computex 2026. Aimed squarely at the $300-$400 range, you can expect new cheap notebooks from the likes of Acer, HP and Lenovo rocking it.

Specs are unclear at the moment, but we expect this to be similar to the Neo's A18 Pro — the same sort of construction as the Snapdragon X2 Elite (a CPU, GPU and NPU for AI), but with a lower core count across the board.

No specifics have been announced, but if these machines offer a comparable experience, Apple could have legitimate competition.

So, of course, the biggest question is: can Snapdragon C help Windows laptops compete with the MacBook Neo? We don’t have enough information to determine that right now, but the possibility is certainly intriguing.

Snapdragon C: The basics

As Qualcomm describes it, Snapdragon C is designed for entry-level laptops used by students, families, and small businesses. In other words, the same crowd Apple is targeting with the MacBook Neo.

Price plays a major factor here, with Qualcomm claiming Snapdragon C laptops will land in the $300-$400 range. If that turns out to be the case, that would be lower than the Neo’s $599 starting price. It would also be the opposite of the inflated prices we’ve been seeing all year, thanks to the RAM crisis.

“As costs rise and customer expectations evolve, Snapdragon C brings together value oriented computing, all-day battery life, AI capabilities and responsive performance in cool-quiet devices for expanded platform choice,” said Kedar Kondap, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Compute and Gaming, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“We’re delivering modern computing experiences that help our ecosystem reach new audiences and expanding access to reliable, efficient technology for students, families, customer-facing small businesses, and beyond.”

Snapdragon C laptops promise all-day battery life. This is something we should take seriously, given that laptops with Snapdragon X chips are among the longest-lasting we’ve tested at Tom’s Guide. If the lower-tier C processors offer anything close to 15-20 hours of endurance, they could quite literally lap the Neo in battery life.

In addition to supporting everyday tasks like web browsing, video streaming, and productivity, the Snapdragon C chip also has an integrated NPU for on-device AI tasks. The jury is still out on the usefulness of on-device AI (I still find it all undercooked), but this could be seen as futureproofing if and when AI becomes more useful.

The first Snapdragon C laptop

We don’t yet have a full list of Snapdragon C laptop manufacturers, but some of the big names currently attached include HP, Lenovo, and Acer. The latter is particularly noteworthy, as Acer is the first PC maker in the world to announce a laptop powered by Snapdragon C with the Acer Aspire Go 15.

Like the MacBook Neo, this laptop starts with 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and two USB-C ports. Differences include a 15.6-inch display instead of the Neo’s 13-inch screen and an HDMI port. Acer’s press release says the Aspire Go 15 features plastic components, which would be a downgrade from the Neo’s all-aluminum frame.

Snapdragon C vs. MacBook Neo

Both the MacBook Neo and Snapdragon C laptops are aimed squarely at the casual crowd, so it wouldn't surprise me if the C has more in common with Qualcomm's mobile architecture than we're expecting.

That'd fall in line nicely with how the Neo is literally just an iPhone chip (the A18 Pro) but also demonstrated just how much that tiny silicon can actually do!

However, nothing has been announced about cores and clock speeds (yet). We're aiming to get more information about this at Computex 2026 in Taipei!

But to set a target for any Qualcomm laptops to hit, they've gotta aim to drink the MacBook Neo's milkshake — hitting that sweet spot of just enough power for casual use, while giving enough headroom for manufacturers to provide a more premium build quality than the plastic shells and tacky displays they've been doing so far.

Bottom line

Right now, it’s hard to believe that a $300-$400 Windows laptop can hope to match the Neo as an overall package. Will these machines have aluminum frames and vibrant displays like the Neo, or will they have the kind of cheap plastic designs and dim screens we’re used to?

Sure, the price sounds right, but as the Neo has shown, price and specs alone aren’t enough. Laptops need to offer folks more, even if they’re budget machines.

We’ll need to go hands-on with Snapdragon C laptops to see how they compare to the MacBook Neo, both in terms of performance and in daily use. If they can match the experience, then we might all owe Apple for, ironically enough, making laptops more affordable.

More from Tom's Guide

• I’m testing the MacBook Neo of AR glasses that people can actually afford
• Computex 2026 predictions
• Intel’s Arc G3 and Arc G3 Extreme handheld chips expected for Computex

So a lot has happened since I wrote this Computex 2026 preview, and a couple of my predictions have already come true (really should've put a bet on this)!

• Intel has confirmed the Arc G3 gaming handheld chip, which will launch in the Acer Predator Atlas 8, MSI Claw 8 EX AI+ and the OneXPlayer
• The fightback against the MacBook Neo is officially on with the Snapdragon C chip for cheap Windows laptops

We're just days away from the show in Taipei — happening between June 1 and June 5, with an Nvidia keynote kicking off the event, and I will be on the ground covering and testing all the latest and greatest announcements!

And while tow of my predictions have come true, there are other trends that I need to set the stage for. Because not only is this set to be the biggest Computex ever, it’s also going to be the most important. There are some huge challenges ahead for consumer computing, and we’re set to see exactly how the industry will rise to them.

And as Managing Editor of Core Tech, this is my favorite time of the year. So it's time to set the stage and tell you what I predict will be coming out of Taipei.

What to expect

Computex is my team’s Super Bowl — our season finale, setting the stage for the next 12 months (and further ahead). And what’s becoming clear from the event schedule, rumors, and leaks, four potential announcements look set to dominate the event (and the two that are already confirmed).

Nvidia enters the CPU silicon wars of 2026

Yes, I know we’ve spoken about Nvidia N1X for a while now. We predicted it for Computex 2025 and CES 2026, but it didn't happen at either event. But all the stars are aligning rumor-wise, and it’s highly anticipated that Jensen Huang will take the stage at his GTC keynote and announce the new silicon.

For those uninitiated, this is Team Green’s ARM silicon — inspired by its DGX Spark AI supercomputers but squeezed down into something that can power the latest laptops.

And yes, since it's Nvidia, you can expect some big gaming chops here, as certain leakers claim it will be the equivalent of an RTX 4070, all on integrated graphics.

And since it’s ARM, you can expect key power efficiency too, which would be significant for the future of gaming laptops. As for who’s looking to run these chips, Dell, Lenovo, and Alienware look like a lock.

But I want to pose a different prediction… Asus is celebrating the 20th anniversary of ROG, and an integrated-GPU version of the Zephyrus G14 with Intel’s Panther Lake was quietly pulled from CES. Wouldn’t it be quite a return to form if there were an N1X-armed G14? Food for thought for you!

Asus back with a new Ally!?

The rumors are beginning to mount that a new Asus ROG Ally 2 gaming handheld may be announced at Computex! News first broke by YouTuber Steam Dad, in which he spoke about a "next-gen handheld from Asus" coming to the show.

If this is true, what will we see inside? For the years it's been around, the Ally has always been on AMD silicon. That being said, Intel's bringing some gaming handheld heat to the party. Could this be one of the devices rocking Arc G3?

Speaking of...

CONFIRMED: Intel Arc G3 to rock the gaming handheld space

Intel’s been pretty clear that a retooled version of its Panther Lake chips is coming to gaming handhelds, and we’re looking ready to roll at Computex. And Team Blue has now confirmed the Intel Arc G3 and G3 Extreme chipsets are set to launch in three new gaming handhelds.

For context, this all began when we all found out that the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 CPUs had pretty beastly GPUs — paired with strong XeSS 3 scaling and multi-frame generation to deliver seriously impressive fidelity and frame rates.

Don’t expect them to be cheap, but this looks truly set to be the generational leap in handhelds we’ve been waiting for, and it’ll surely make AMD nervous.

CONFIRMED: The fightback against MacBook Neo is on for cheap Windows laptops

Of all the companies that really bring value for money back to computing, I did not expect Apple to be the one to do it. The MacBook Neo has shown that cheap laptops don’t have to be hunks of plastic with bad displays and spongy keyboards. They can actually be great and make you question whether you actually need to spend more (my time facing it off with the MacBook Pro proved that).

And if one thing is clear from asking my sources, it’s that other laptop makers were blindsided by this and rather terrified by the prospect of this premium notebook. So what's the plan to fight back? Qualcomm's shown its hand with Snapdragon C — silicon targeting laptop prices of just $300.

But what about Intel’s new Wildcat Lake chips? We've heard rumblings about this chip bring laptops with much more attention to detail on the design/build quality front in a big way, and we'll be watching closely.

AI everywhere

I mean, it’s obvious at this point, right? Last year’s show was AI-dominated, and reports say that Computex organizers are actively demoting companies that don’t have AI products to show.

From hardware fueling the AI data center explosion to new gadgets running LLMs locally for the people, you can expect this to be the biggest talking point of the show. And while you’ll see a lot of tech that just has “AI” in the name but doesn’t really offer any real benefits from having AI, there will certainly be some useful devices.

Google I/O proved just how much consumer-focused agentic AI is coming down the way, and it’s absolutely no surprise that you’ll hear a lot more about the silicon that will power these experiences. No doubt Nvidia’s GTC conference will shed some more light on this AI automation, too. Speaking of…

The robots are coming!

We’ve heard a lot about robotics and AI over the past few years, but it's all essentially been talk — maybe with some automated production lines for good measure. The idea of having your own personal robot assistant seems a bit pie-in-the-sky.

But more and more over the course of this year, we’ve been hearing about robotics finally getting the AI compute it needs, from things like Nvidia’s Jetson silicon, to make it work. And I think this may be the first moment we get a proper glimpse of what that humanoid future could look like.

Will it be a bit Black Mirror? Probably, but as a tech journalist, I can’t deny it is damn cool.

How Tom’s Guide will cover Computex 2026

So long as the tech checks off one (or more) of these boxes, you’ll be reading about it or seeing it in our coverage! These will be the criteria we use to judge the winners of our Best of Computex awards, too.

We call it “Computing for the rest of us” — our ongoing mission to not write for insiders, but so anyone can feel like the smartest geek in the room. Every year, you’ll read, hear, and see a whole lot of jargon-filled coverage with assumed knowledge coming out of Taiwan. My team and I have challenged that notion and have been rather successful in doing it!

And in our third iteration of Computex, we’re powering on with this mission but also making clear our three key goals of what we’d love to see (and tell you all about):

• Value: It’s no real surprise that this is our top priority — we have a Savings Squad after all! We want to see companies talk less about their data center hardware and more about delivering maximum bang for the buck in consumer products that are well-priced against the backdrop of RAMageddon.
• Actually useful AI: Computex’s theme this year is “AI together,” and if the past couple of years are anything to go by, you can expect these two letters to be said a lot. We don’t want to see AI stuffed into hardware just because — we want to see actually useful, thoughtful implementations.
• Fascination: Not only does the show give us a chance to test the cool stuff you’ll be able to buy, but it also gives us a sneak peek at some truly ludicrous cutting-edge tech that sets the stage for the next five years. Internally, we call it “the cool sh*t,” but a more family-friendly way to put it is that we want to be fascinated.

See y’all in Taipei

Of course, there will be much more — new PC components to talk about, new bleeding-edge silicon, new sim racing gear, new monitors and peripherals. And you best believe we’ll be covering all the best from the show floor as we see it.

So if you’re looking for a human glance at how Computex is carving out the future of computing, keep it locked on Tom’s Guide for all our written and video coverage from Taipei.

More from Tom's Guide

• Xreal’s Android XR glasses are an early glimpse of my dream smart glasses
• I hate that I love Google’s new AI-powered search bar
• I switched my Ray-Ban Metas for L’Atitude 52°N for a month

In a sit-down interview with David Senra, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel shared some more details about the vision of Snap Specs ahead of their consumer release later this year. Besides taking a swing at Meta in the chat, it’s fair to say the conversation got weird…in an interesting way.

"What if aliens are…sending these glasses to save people from their lives that I think have become so oriented around screens,” Spiegel posed. My immediate thought was to email Snap and ask for whatever Spiegel’s smoking, because it sounds awesome.

But as someone who is already high on the idea of smart glasses being the next generation of portable computing, it started to click as he defined the smartphone as a “biological disaster” and talked about computers pulling us all “away from one another” and into a “single player experience.” Let’s go into what he said and map that with my time testing Specs.

Not just a gadget, but a rescue mission

It’s fair to say that the devices we use around us disconnect us from our surroundings, so Spiegel sees Specs as a “prison break” from the 7-hour-a-day screen habit that has been over 12 years in the making.

“The biggest problem I see today is that people are spending seven or eight hours a day on their computer. We have to change that,” Spiegel commented. He calls it a “single player” experience that is a “disaster for our society” in pulling us away from one another.

And it’s this that drove the philosophy that AR is the only human path. “Holding this tiny little screen in your hands was not the future of computers,” Spiegel proclaimed. Neither does he think it’s VR, as he bluntly critiqued this as “insane” and like “wearing a TV on your face.”

In my time testing the developer versions of Specs, you can start to see this vision of taking that isolating layer of computing out and allowing us to reconnect. The Waveguide displays overlay your world with information and AI-driven context in ways that are actually useful, such as recipes and cooking steps, labeling items in front of you, or live subtitling people speaking around you.

But how much are we actually reconnecting? This is something I found while testing the Even Realities G2 — finding that I may have looked physically present in the moment, but not really at the same time. My abilities to think critically and listen actively were being replaced by AI features like Conversate.

Don’t get me wrong. This hands-off and eyes-on approach is definitely a step forward from always looking down at a screen, but real attention needs to be paid to software and app design to ensure that this isn’t all just for show.

Meta’s “camouflage” critique

Spiegel also offered a sharp take on Meta’s partnership with Luxottica (the company behind Ray-Ban) — saying that Meta had to partner with a fashion brand to remove the liability of its own brand name.

"I think Meta really needed to partner with Luxottica because the Meta brand I think is not something that people want to put anywhere near their face,” Spiegel commented. “"What's challenging for Luxottica is they took like the most iconic, crazy high-margin product and they destroyed the margin and then they associated it with Meta.”

It’s an interesting point, and one that after seeing Meta filing a patent to digitally resurrect its users, and getting warned by organizations to not turn on facial recognition in smart glasses, I can kind of see the sense in. A lot of my friends and family have a love/hate relationship with Meta in its connected platforms vs invasion of privacy, so to put Luxottica names on its camera-equipped hardware is a smart move.

But the Snap Specs will be in a different direction — built and designed in house. “Control of the hardware is necessary to deliver an extraordinary customer experience,” Spiegel added.

When speaking to the former VP of hardware, Scott Myers, it’s clear that form factor is a priority for the company, as he emphasized that “the social acceptability element is so critically important.”

Quite how the company manages to pull this off with the vast amounts of compute and sensor tech required to pull off the Specs without a puck is going to be a monumental challenge. But I’m curious to see!

More from Tom's Guide

• I’ve worn smart glasses for over 5 years — here’s the best AR and AI glasses
• Apple's AI smart glasses strategy revealed: How the iPhone maker plans to outshine Meta's Ray-Bans
• Snap and Qualcomm team up for 'the future of Specs' — aiming to make smart glasses 'more human and grounded in the real world'

Later this year, Snap is expected to finally release its next-generation Specs. The smart glasses feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR chipset platform.

This week, Snap and Qualcomm announced that the two companies are continuing their partnership. “We believe the future of computing will be more human and grounded in the real world," said co-founder and CEO of Snap, Evan Spiegel, in a press release.

Both companies seem to believe the future of smart glasses is making them more socially acceptable and merging AI and AR glasses.

Social acceptability

Snap went all out promoting Specs AR glasses at last year's Augmented World Expo (AWE). At the time, CEO Evan Spiegel promised that the new Specs would be smaller, lighter and much more wearable.

We've seen the Specs over several hands-on sessions — cramming XR smarts in a pair of glasses, but these aren't the sleek Meta Ray-Bans or even second monitors like the RayNeo Air 4 Pros. Right now, the Specs feature two Snapdragon chips that power everything the glasses do.

The directed demos we've seen have been fairly impressive and a hint at future where you see the world without a smartphone.

Former VP of hardware Scott Myers was pretty open about the design during a conversation at AWE last year.

"The form factor obviously matters, but it's also the fit and finish of these things that matter when you make that jump. They need to be robust, but all of those are pulling the product in different directions," Myers said.

He went on to say that the company's strategy of slowly developing the Specs with input from the community and developers is the balance the company was seeking.

It should be noted that Myers left Snap in February 2026. Reportedly, the departure was over an alleged "blow up" with CEO Evan Spiegel over the direction of Specs and the company. Snap disputed the characterization but did not elaborate on why Myers left in a statement to TechCrunch.

Long term roadmap

The press release from Snap and Qualcomm notes that the partnership agreement is a five-year extension.

“The next era of computing will be defined by devices that understand what you see, hear and say as well as context and respond instantly to the world around you,” Qualcomm CEO and President Cristiano Amon said in the release.

Qualcomm is creating AI-forward chips that take up less space and are more power-efficient for any number of devices, from the Galaxy S26 Ultra to its Windows laptop CPUs. The company also has partnerships with Google and Samsung for the Android XR platform.

The chips will get better, and Snap presumably will condense its glasses over time.

The question is whether Snap will be able to find its footing with the glasses. As one commenter said when Myers left Snap, "Those enormous things are not ready for release. Leaving the company seems like a good idea."

More from Tom's Guide

• I switched to the RayNeo Air 4 Pro for 3 months: the best way to binge watch HDR10 video and game right on your face
• I’ve tested every pair of AR glasses since 2022 — most are junk, but these five actually replaced my monitor
• Smart glasses vs. regular glasses — here's how to tell if you're being filmed

So I posted my Asus Zenbook A14 and A16 review yesterday and gave them four stars — in particular because of that price-to-performance ratio. Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme really shined at the costs set for them, and really made for formidable competition to the M5 MacBook Air. It generated a wave of Editor’s Choice awards (including one from me), but then something odd happened.

A few hours after the embargo, Asus sent an update saying Best Buy made an “error” in its “pricing information,” and had increased the A14 by $200 and the A16 by $100.

Everybody had based their reviews based on these initial prices, and hours later, these laptops (in particular the A14) were switched from a potential MacBook killer to just another premium laptop. These have now moved from a “must buy” to “wait for a sale.”

Luckily, as a writer, I can go back and adjust the score with new context (which I did). But YouTubers aren’t so lucky, and keen to figure out what happened here, I went investigating because something feels amiss.

The end-of-day email grenade

If you’ve ever worked in corporate America (or the U.K. for that matter), you’ll know about the nightmare scenario of a 5:30pm email — the info drop that comes just as you’re supposed to clock off.

Normally, it’s something you pretend you didn’t read and head straight for the exit (sorry, boss), but this changed the dimension of my review entirely. It was from Asus, and rather than just summarize it, I’ll give you the text verbatim:

"We were just notified by Best Buy that an error was made on their end when sharing pricing information for the new Zenbook A series and other Zenbook launches internally and publicly on their website. The correct prices for all models are listed below (and updated in the attached press release):

• ASUS Zenbook A16: $1,699.99 (previously listed at $1,599.99)
• ASUS Zenbook A14: $1,349.99 (previously listed at $1,149.99)
• ASUS Zenbook S16: $1,899.99 (previously listed as $1,599.99)
• ASUS Zenbook S14: $1,999.99 (previously listed as $1,899.99)
• ASUS Zenbook 14: $1,349.99 (previously listed as $999.99)

Best Buy is updating their website to reflect these prices as soon as possible."

Asus apologised for the “late notice regarding this matter,” and as that price hike puts the A14 and A16 further out the MacBook Air’s radar in terms of competing, I’ve changed my review accordingly.

But there’s something I don’t get about this — something that bugs me…

A peek behind the curtains

Time for a bit of inside baseball about the process of reviewing laptops. We get advance sight of upcoming launches and offered a chance to test them for a full review. Alongside it comes a reviewer’s guide and embargoed press releases with the details that we need to evaluate them.

For the week running up to this embargo lifting, these prices were clear as day. They were even present a little earlier than the embargo on Best Buy, as Videocardz reported.

And in the statement, Asus (the company who makes the laptop and sets the MSRP) is saying that Best Buy (the company who takes that MSRP and decides the retail price) got it wrong? Something doesn’t add up about this.

Context: These versions of the A14 and A16 are exclusive to Best Buy — this relationship usually means Asus recommends a price based on parts, labor and profit margin, and the retailer with the exclusive has final say on the price.

Before this job, I worked in product PR and marketing for just over a decade, and the golden rule is to always sign things off before they go out. You check it, and you recheck it again and again. It can be a real pain to do so, but every fact needs to be completely accurate.

Asus will have seen these releases in the run up to the embargo lifting, including the pricing information. But it’s only now that the company is “just notified by Best Buy” about wrong pricing? Once again, it’s just not adding up.

Asus and Best Buy respond

I reached out to both Asus and Best Buy for comment on this, to clarify the confusion around this situation.

"Best Buy determines pricing on their exclusive configurations. The pricing reflected in our press materials was based on information shared with us prior to launch. We were notified of the pricing update after embargo lifted and our assets had already been distributed," an Asus rep told Tom's Guide.

"Once we were notified of the change, we worked to update reviewers and press as quickly as possible."

Best Buy corroborated this by confirming to Tom's Guide that a "system error" occurred. Asus admitted the timing was "poor" and apologized for the inconsistent pricing. While this explains the who, it still leaves the how unanswered: how a price discrepancy this large (up to 35%) could sit on a major retailer’s website for a week without being caught by the manufacturer’s own PR and marketing teams.

What I think may be happening here

Which leads me to the ultimate question: what happened? While the replies do shed some light, it doesn’t negate that pricing was fully visible for a while. So one of two theories may be true in my opinion:

• This was a legitimate breakdown in Asus’ chain of communication that meant these retailer prices went unchecked.
• Asus shared its recommended MSRP, which Best Buy followed — then raised it after the embargo.

If you’re seeing the coverage elsewhere, people have already made their minds up that Asus/Best Buy waited until after reviews pour out to hike the price, and I have been burnt by other companies like this in the past. But the replies I received suggest otherwise, so you'll have to decide what you think is true here.

But let’s take a look at the track record, because Asus has been one of the more prominent companies being hit very hard by RAMageddon. The company did warn of price increases at the beginning of the year, and the end result (for some of my Asus reviews at least) has been that their laptops could’ve been great…if they were priced right for what you get.

Let me be clear — this isn’t me being accusatory of anything! The responses from Asus and Best Buy do line up, so it could be a legitimate error. But the more you look into this and think about it, it starts to raise questions about internal validation for pricing before a major global launch.

And who knows? Maybe this will become less of a problem when the cracks in the RAM price crisis start to widen.

More from Tom's Guide

• MacBook Neo could get these two major performance upgrades in 2027 — but I want Apple to fix this instead
• ‘The squeeze is real’: I spoke to RAM crisis oracle, Carmen Li, about when this nightmare ends — here’s what she told me
• I pixel-peeped DLSS 5 — and now I can’t tell if Nvidia just changed gaming or broke it with AI

The laptop Asus really wanted to call the Zenbook Air (if it weren’t for an “easily spooked” legal team) is back in two sizes — the Zenbook A14 and A16 with Snapdragon X2 Elite upgrades under the hood. It’s clear that they have the M5 MacBook Airs in their sights, so do they take the fight to Apple and win? Not anymore.

The A14 was primed to take on the 13-inch M5 MacBook Air, and at the original price of just $50 more than Apple's laptop, the competition was tight. Now the cost has been hiked to $1,349 ($250 more), the Cupertino crew can breathe a sigh of relief as the smaller Air remains untouched atop the throne.

Then we turn our attention to the Zenbook A16 sporting Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme. Now don’t get me wrong — this is a beast. As I found out testing this chip last year, and going hands-on with this 16-inch monster, the snappiness of general productivity and workhorse nature of speeding through intense tasks is impressive. Plus, you’re getting all of that in the lightest big laptop I’ve ever held with a mouthwatering screen.

But with great power comes less than great battery life, and in the face of the 15-inch M5 Air, this falters quite sizably while being significantly more expensive. Add to that a price bump of $100 to $1,699, and it's clearly competing more with the M5 MacBook Pro.

Like I said when I reviewed the first-generation model last year: to beat the MacBook Air, you must become the MacBook Air. For 24 hours, that margin had narrowed, but after an "error was made on [Best Buy's] end when sharing pricing information," it's becoming a little more clear cut that the A14 is a miss for Asus again, but the A16 has a fighting chance in its own right. Let me explain.

Asus Zenbook A14 & A16: Cheat sheet

• What is it? The Zenbook A14 and A16 are super-thin and light 14-inch and 16-inch laptops.
• Who is it for? This is for those who are always on the go and need a machine that keeps up with them.
• What does it cost? This laptop starts at $1,349 for the Snapdragon X2 Elite A14, and $1,699 for the X2 Elite Extreme-armed A16. In the U.K, you can buy the A14 for £1,599 and the A16 for £2,099.
• What’s good about it? Same as last year, these are gorgeously upmarket, thin and light systems that pack impressive performance and stamina (the latter specific to the 14-inch model).
• What’s not so good? Tiny speakers on both of them. The battery life on the A16 takes a big dip when putting a same-size battery in it compared to the A14, and expecting it to run the monster X2 Elite Extreme chip. Pair that with far higher prices, and they become tricky machines to compete with the Airs.

Asus Zenbook A14 & A16: Specs

Asus Zenbook A14 & A16: The ups

Just like last year, the Zenbook A-series is one of the best hardware expressions of a Snapdragon laptop — thin, light and impressively performant both on and off the charger.

Same gorgeously svelte design

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!” It’s a mantra that Apple’s maintaining with its MacBook Air design, and Asus is standing firm too — just making it significantly larger with a 16-inch model in tow too:

What’s probably most impressive looking at these numbers here is that even though the Zenbooks have bigger, better screens (more on those later), the dimensions are barely bigger and they are quite a bit lighter too.

But none of these stats tells the story of the ceraluminum material used to build these machines. Just like the name says, it’s what happens when you fuse ceramic and aluminum, and the result is a fingerprint-resistant deck that feels almost like paper to the touch.

It’s a nice embrace for your wrists to lie upon as you type away, which, by the way, those keyboards feel nice with a nice tactile response to each press. Pair it with gigantic touchpads on both the A14 and A16, and all the ports you’d need (shout-out to the full-size SD card slot on the 16-inch), and you’re golden design-wise.

However, with the new higher price tag, there is one design issue that becomes a problem. The flex of the system and how much that lid can bend. For all the premium feel of the surface materials, this doesn't translate well into durability confidence.

Light of my life

With instant-on, the moment you open these up, you’re greeted by glorious OLED across the board. It’s a flash flood of color, whatever you work on, watch, or play.

The 14-inch FHD OLED panel breathes more life into your day-to-day compared to the LCD panels you see on the Air — making up for the lower resolution by bringing more vibrancy to everything you’re doing. Meanwhile, that massive 16-inch 2880 x 1800-pixel display feels buttery smooth at 120Hz, ultra bright and mightily gorgeous as colors melt off the screen.

Whether you’re binge watching, dealing with a workload that requires color accuracy or even gaming (more on that in a second), these are great screens.

Unleashing a beast

Let’s get to it. These are the fastest Windows laptops I’ve ever tested, and X2 Elite well and truly takes the fight to Apple M5, while the X2 Elite Extreme breezes past it in some key areas — performing somewhere between M5 and M5 Pro.

M5 may have the edge in snappy single-core performance (something that, in my own side-by-side testing of opening apps, is the difference of maybe half a second in load times), but multitasking and media processing are where this starts to take the lead. And while they do fall behind the MacBook in the read/write speeds, they edge ahead in the GPU department, too.

And speaking of that GPU, that’s where we get into gaming. Now, of course, Intel Panther Lake and AMD Strix Halo are in the lead here with their x86 computational wares and software integration boosting frame rates (like Intel’s XeSS multi-frame generation).

That being said, though, the GPU upgrades on X2 Elite and the improvements made to emulation happening in the background do make some great things possible! Matching the testing I did over at Qualcomm’s campus, Cyberpunk 2077 can run on the A16 system at over 75 FPS. For the A14, that’s more like 52 FPS average, but that’s still an impressive feat!

Put simply, its focus is productivity, but these can just so happen to game rather well!

Asus Zenbook A14 & A16: The downs

So the competitive gap has narrowed between Asus and Apple in many ways, but there’s one where it’s widened for the worse.

Battery woes (for the A16)

The Zenbook A14 has not gone through our lab testing. But in my general usage impressions, I’ve seen it last around twice as long on one charge as the Zenbook A16.

When it comes to getting bigger, everything else needs to be in proportion. If you upgraded to a pick-up truck, having the gas tank of a Honda Civic in there would be a terrible idea. And that is why when I got the lab test results back for the Zenbook A16, I was honestly gutted.

Because Asus had thought about almost everything — giving the big one the big engine, the better screen, a full-size SD card slot, and an ocean of a touchpad. But with it having exactly the same battery as its smaller brother, it’s not a stamina champ.

Keen to look into it further, I downloaded HWinfo — a great app if something feels a little off about your system to see if something is working a little too hard (or not hard enough) — and the picture became clear.

Running a Geekbench test on both and monitoring the average battery discharge rate over the test, I found the following:

• Zenbook A14: 8.9 watts
• Zenbook A16: 15.6 watts

If you’re going to do a bigger laptop with a more power-hungry chip, everything needs to be in proportion. And yes, just over 10 hours in our test will be enough for casual work, but you can burn through that much faster when you throw something more intense at it.

Pricing is a problem (again)

Like I said up above, myself and everyone else who reviewed the Zenbook A14 and A16 were hit with either a 5:30pm email (or a 10:30pm email for those of us living in the U.K.) about how Asus were "notified by Best Buy" about a pricing error.

This has led to a $200 increase on the A14 and a $100 bump on the A16 — putting them even further out of the MacBook Air's domain to compete.

At a time when value for money is everything, I understand that runs in direct opposition to the RAM crisis pressures being faced by companies to balance their books. But the original score was given based on the previous price, and it must be updated now that I'm looking at it through a new, pricier lens.

Asus Zenbook A14 & A16: Bottom line

As the Asus Zenbook A14 was put on the right track to take on the MacBook Air last year, this year’s A14 and A16 march forward when it comes to performance, but while the A16 shows up strongly with pro level performance in a skinny body, the A14 takes a step back in value for money.

For great ultra-portable all-rounders, Apple stays, and if you’re loyal to Microsoft’s OS and want that same experience, the Zenbook A14 is a good (if expensive) alternative. Meanwhile, the A16 sets a new precedent for a thin and light pro machine that bridges the gap between MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, but the stamina suffers because of it.

And with adjusted pricing showing the gap widening in bang for buck between Apple and Asus, what was a shoe-in for two of my favorite systems of the year has left me feeling indifferent.

There aren't a lot of phones powered by Qualcomm's newest flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, right now, but we're already hearing rumors about what might come next year. Leaker Digital Chat Station (DCS) posted some details about the next Qualcomm flagship, and a little of what we might expect from the chips (yes, chips) that should power the best Android phones of 2027.

DCS refers to the chips by their model numbers, SM8975 and SM8950. Both those numbers are expected to correlate with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro. If this leak is accurate, it means this release could mark the first time Qualcomm has adopted TSMC's 2nm process on mobile chips.

Big performance gains

We'd expect a noticeable boost in performance and energy efficiency from one year to the next, but switching from a 3nm process to 2nm could offer even larger gains. That's all down to the extra transistor density, and means next year's Android flagships should enjoy improvements that wouldn't have otherwise been available.

DCS also notes that the Gen 6 chips will keep the same 2+3+3 CPU configuration of past Snapdragon generations, but the key difference between the two may lie in the graphics department. Apparently, the Pro chip will feature an Adreno 850 GPU with 18MB GMEM, while the standard Gen 6 will feature an Adreno 845 and 12MB GMEM.

GMEM is graphics memory, and Android Authority posits that DCS is likely referring to Adreno's high-performance memory cache. So by having more graphics memory, the Gen 6 Pro will likely be able to handle more intensive graphics processing. It's also said that the Pro model will support LPDDR6 memory, a first for Android phones.

For reference, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has an Adreno 840 GPU with 18MB GMEM. That means there's a slight memory downgrade for the standard Gen 6, but it might be slightly offset by the fact that the chip has a newer GPU and the benefits of the 2nm process.

Price is going to be an issue

DCS claims that the 6 Pro chip is going to be "extremely expensive." That means it's not likely to appear in anything but the most ultra-premium Android flagships. This is not ideal news, considering the cost of RAM and other components is already on the rise. If the price difference really is that extreme, we may see an even bigger increase in flagship phone costs going forward.

Though my question is, what will this mean for the Samsung Galaxy S27? Galaxy flagships have been using a custom version of Qualcomm's main chip for the past few years, offering improved computing and graphical performance compared to the standard chip. Will that trend continue? Or will the Galaxy S27 series adopt the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro instead?

Only time will tell, but for now, we're going to have to contend with the fact that the flagship phone space might be getting more fragmented performance as of next year. Though that might actually be a good thing, if it means phone makers have more choice on what chips they can use and how much they'll have to inevitably charge their customers.

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I’ve been a smart glasses guy for the better part of 5 years — watching them grow through their awkward design phase, as the parallel lines of AR and AI specs start to merge. It’s been a wild ride through the likes of Nreal (now Xreal), Ray-Ban Metas and more.

But now, just as smart glasses were really starting to hit their stylish stride (Even Realities G2 for example), the new Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset may have just moved the idea of what the best AI wearable is from our eyes to our ears.

We’ve been hearing rumors of a pair of AirPods equipped with cameras. I’ve been blown away by Razer’s Project Motoko headset that crams multi-modal AI tech of smart glasses into a pair of cans, and Qualcomm VP Ziad Asghar told me he’s rather excited about this new form factor that the new AI-armed silicon unlocks.

What is Snapdragon Wear Elite?

This announcement (just like many MWC 2026 announcements) got buried under a mountain of Apple March event announcements, but it’s a significant one. While Qualcomm makes a huge stack of chips to bring the best out of particular hardware form factors, Wear Elite is the one that brings all the AI smarts together.

Set to be the brain of a lot of wearables this year (including the next-generation Samsung Galaxy Watch), this re-engineered architecture brings a beasty NPU for speedy on-device AI, while lengthening the stamina with a lower wattage.

It’s the missing link for zippy local AI tasks, and in terms of the kinds of devices it’s primed to be used in, you start to see signs of intent for new product categories. But let me be clear: I bet one of these will not stand up to cultural or fashionable scrutiny.

It won’t be a pin or pendant

The Wear Elite is a bet on AI being the new UI for a lot of day-to-day tasks, but nobody — not even Qualcomm — knows what the device will be.

“To be very open, we don't know what every product looks like,” Asghar commented. “We have an idea what that product needs, but we don't know what that product might look like.”

However, I think we can be pretty confident on what it won’t be: Pendants and pins. Of course, I’ll keep my mind open if we do get something great, but the cautionary tales are clear for the world to see around the Humane AI Pin and Friend Pendant.

“I think the failure of Humane is not necessarily that the product form factor was not right," Asghar said. "I think the execution of it wasn't right in my opinion.” In his mind, the issue was with user experience rather than design, but it’s more than that.

These kinds of devices are all a solution in search of a problem — replacing smartphone usage (something that takes a whole lot of convincing to do). The form factor needs to be right, in that it’s not just an additional “thing” you wear, and that’s exactly what these devices were.

We’ve tried and failed in this field, and while Ziad is right to tell me that the Snapdragon Wear Elite could’ve “fixed” the Humane AI Pin, there’s more fundamental issues here.

It could be glasses? But I fear their time is passing

Such is small windows of cultural power that just as smart glasses are entering their mainstream adoption era, camera-equipped earbuds could be ready to take it all.

“If people don’t want to wear glasses, you could have a camera in each one and now you can pretty much do everything that smart glasses can do,” Asghar said.

Approximately four billion people wear glasses, and to loosely tie another study into this, 19% have admitted to wearing fake glasses purely for fashion at least once. That’s one-in-five (I’m definitely one of them), and the idea of wearing specs for the smart tech when you don’t need to wear glasses has not caught on.

Now compare that to earbuds and headphones. Around 3.8 billion people globally use them for an average of 6-7 hours a day, and there’s no stigma to wearing them when you don’t need them. So to put this same tech into a pair of headphones or earbuds seems like a more logical buying decision for most folks.

And as the smart glasses guy, it hurts me to admit that. I hope I’m wrong, because there’s a lot of amazing things happening in this space.

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What do you get when a gaming headset and Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses get a bit busy in the bedroom? You get Razer’s Project Motoko, and after testing them, I’m convinced that this is now so much more than just a headphone/smart glasses mashup.

These debuted at CES 2026 as a prototype that the company promised will be released at some point, at a price that would compete with smart glasses. And at MWC 2026, I got to take another look at them.

Chances are you already know the spec sheet here — a premium pair of cans with two 4K cameras, a Snapdragon chip (that Razer’s not allowed to say what it is, which makes me think it's something new and unannounced), and a promised 36-hour battery life.

But what matters here is this form factor unlocks so much as an AI device, beyond what AI glasses can do. Let me explain.

Mission complete

Given these have the DNA of smart glasses, AI-wise, the use cases on show are your pretty standard affair. Point the dual 12MP cameras at something, ask a question and get answers.

I tested it in a gaming sense (because, Razer) and got rapid feedback on how to use my Minecraft inventory in the silliest way possible.

But then I went further into real-life examples like asking what dishes to avoid on a foreign-language menu based on allergies and asking what to cook with a bunch of ingredients. It honestly felt like going through a game tutorial for life moments.

Responses are fast, with a capture taken and processed within seconds, and the headset is AI model agnostic — open to Gemini, ChatGPT (more like QuitGPT) and more that you can tune to different tasks for a multi-modal experience.

Razer does tout more features coming too, including real-time AI assistance through persistent video, AI-enhanced visual awareness that uses those wide angle cameras to identify details you may miss in your peripheral vision, and even machine learning tools to train robots.

A mass-appeal form factor

The idea of what AI hardware will look like is a question so many companies are trying to answer in so many different ways. One of the most common answers has been smart glasses, but Qualcomm itself (the company behind the chip) finds the idea of camera buds “interesting.”

“If people don’t want to wear glasses, you could have a camera in each one and now you can pretty much do everything that smart glasses can do,” Zaid Asghar, SVP of wearables and personal AI told Tom’s Guide.

Because let’s be honest — glasses aren’t for anyone. Be it from a comfort perspective or a “I don’t want to look like a hipster by wearing glasses I don’t need” side of things, they cause a bigger visual statement than a humble pair of cans.

And that’s why I’m very intrigued by Project Motoko. It changes the dynamic of how you use them from being just something you use every now and then in glasses to something that can be with you at all times.

It’s rare you’ll find me without headphones on my neck or around my head, and chances are you’re the same too. This elevates it to an actually useful AI assistant you’d use on the regular, instead of something you use on vacations to tell you fun facts about buildings.

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The world is staring at Apple right now — anticipating a low-cost MacBook sporting a phone chip (specifically the A18 Pro) over the more powerful M-series. It’s an interesting pivot, which could be the key to fighting back against the RAM price crisis and making affordable laptops.

Well, there is only one other company who could do the same with its massive selection of chips for devices of all sizes: Qualcomm. Much like Apple silicon, Snapdragon architecture runs the whole gamut from the upcoming X2 lineage for laptops to 8 Elite mobile chips. So how does the company feel about this potentially huge pivot?

In the final few moments before Apple look set to debut its entirely new entry into the MacBook family, I got the chance to put this question to Kedar Kondap, SVP of compute and gaming at Qualcomm.

‘We feel very good’

The response from Qualcomm was simple at first, but it’s when you start to combine it with other things that were said that it starts to click into place — like a chipset sitting perfectly flush on a motherboard.

“From our perspective, there’s nobody better suited in this industry than Qualcomm to be able to address this challenge,” Kondap commented. “We have the same set of chips that are easily accessible on the phone side, as well as on the PC side. Not just that, but we have a pretty good share in tablets.”

“I feel like we’re in a very good position to go drive that, and we’ll see what the industry leads to. This is a moment where it’s going to work to our strength, but we’ll find out.”

When asked about whether Qualcomm sees the merit in using one chip in multiple types of devices over having it clearly defined for a particular category, they kept tight lipped.

“We’re not going to speculate right now, but we’ll see once we see what is out in the market and we can evaluate it.”

Apple ‘screwed that up’ in the beginning

So what will they evaluate? In my eyes, it looks like the focus will be placed on not necessarily the type of chip Apple uses, but what it will do — is the company thinking the same way as Qualcomm about certain things? Because they’re certainly not so worried about the possibility of the A18 Pro.

“It’s a two-year-old chip that has a four-channel memory interface, and we have an eight-channel interface — with stronger CPUs already in the market at the price range that people think Apple is going to be at,” Alex Katouzian, EVP of Mobile, Compute & XR commented. “I think that’s good because those sales [of Arm computers] will start to rise.”

But then, he dipped into the idea of laptop cellular connectivity — something Qualcomm has long vouched for. “One other good thing is the rumor they will put their modem inside that device,” Katouzian continued. “I think Apple screwed that up at the beginning with the iPads…$120 extra was a lot to pay at the time.”

“But ironically, if it comes back and Apple is a proponent of it, that’s a good thing for the market. So overall, good for us, good for non-x86 and also good for cellular connectivity.”

Where do we go?

Something jumped out at me here that got me thinking of two questions: what does Qualcomm’s “position” look like, and how do the laptops of the future operate?

Well, the answer in my mind came with a small reveal internally of sorts. “I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but we have the ability from our perspective to have both X1 and X2 run in parallel,” Kondap commented in response to a question about chip availability looking ahead.

But here’s the thing, I don’t think this is just about availability — this could be a huge affordability play too, while addressing future cellular connection challenges.

Apple’s turning to its phone chips, but as you’ve seen in retail, Qualcomm can hit that same price tag and keep that same higher performance level that you’d see from having more laptop-centric silicon.

It will certainly be interesting to see how this develops over time, as both Qualcomm and Apple speed ahead and really take the fight to x86 with the likes of Intel and AMD.

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Wi-Fi 7 is not even fully mainstream (I am still using Wi-Fi 6 routers at home), and yet we are already talking about Wi-Fi 8. Alongside showcasing its new smartwatch chipset at MWC 2026, Qualcomm has also unveiled its Wi-Fi 8 platforms, and I'm genuinely glad the company is focusing not just on peak speeds but also on improving reliability.

Qualcomm is showing off two Wi-Fi 8 solutions at MWC 2026 in Barcelona. The first is the FastConnect 8800 chipset, which will ship in commercial devices like smartphones, laptops, and tablets. Then there are several platforms under the Dragonwing portfolio, which are designed for networking hardware such as routers, gateways, and access points.

Wi-Fi 8 focuses on reliability, not just speed

The FastConnect 8800 is the chipset that will power consumer devices, allowing phones and tablets to take full advantage of Wi-Fi 8 when paired with compatible routers. It's one of the first solutions to move from a 2x2 radio setup to a 4x4 Wi-Fi radio configuration — effectively doubling the antenna count compared to the previous FastConnect 7800.

What this means is (of course) even higher peak speeds of up to 11.6Gbps. I saw a live demo at Qualcomm's booth where the company's prototypes were hitting around 9.1Gbps in real-world conditions.

But what impressed me more was Qualcomm's claim of up to three times the Gigabit wireless range compared to the previous generation. This means devices powered by FastConnect 8800 should be able to maintain higher speeds even when you move away from the router, instead of seeing dramatic drops in performance.

I asked a Qualcomm representative about the impact of having more antennas on battery life, since doubling the antennas could suggest higher power consumption. The executive explained that it would've virtually no impact because FastConnect 8800 can complete the same tasks in half the time. That efficiency should offset the additional hardware, although we will know more once commercial devices launch.

Then there is Dragonwing, which focuses on home networking gear that enables Wi-Fi 8 in the first place. Qualcomm announced several Dragonwing platforms, but the most notable is the Dragonwing NPro A8 Elite. It uses a 5x5 Wi-Fi radio system, and Qualcomm claims it improves throughput by up to 40% at typical distances while also reducing latency and power consumption.

In simple terms, Wi-Fi 8 is not just about achieving extreme peak speeds. Qualcomm is positioning it as a solution for maintaining those speeds in crowded environments with many connected devices.

Current Wi-Fi setups can deliver impressive numbers near the router or when not many devices are connected to a single access point, but performance often drops as you move around the house. Wi-Fi 8 aims to solve that consistency problem.

Launching later in 2026

Wi-Fi 8 is not fully standardized yet, but that will happen soon. Qualcomm says the first commercial Wi-Fi 8 products are expected in late 2026. That said, it'll likely take a few more years before Wi-Fi 8 becomes mainstream across routers, phones, TVs, and laptops.

Still, I'm happy with the direction Qualcomm is taking. Instead of just chasing bigger numbers, Wi-Fi 8 seems focused on delivering fast speeds reliably throughout your home, not just when you are standing next to the router.

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I’m at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, where Qualcomm Technologies just announced the brand’s latest Snapdragon Wear Elite processor for smartwatches, and it’s all about handling complex AI tasks. Here’s what it could mean for your next wearables.

Snapdragon Wear Elite: Now even more AI on your wrist

According to Qualcomm, the latest wearables processor is all about enabling “high-power AI processing directly on the device.” While today’s smartwatches offer impressive AI capabilities, not all of the high-tech processing actually happens on your watch.

For example, the new AI-powered, personalized ‘Workout Buddy’ feature for Apple Watch requires a paired Apple Intelligence-powered smartphone to work.

Coming to your Pixel or Galaxy Watch soon

Of course, Apple doesn’t use Qualcomm processors in the Apple Watch, but Google and Samsung both do. In fact, Qualcomm makes it clear that the latest Snapdragon Wear Elite processor will likely be supported by Pixel Watch and Galaxy Watch devices.

In 2026, Samsung and Google will be a full step ahead of Apple when it comes to on-wrist AI capabilities. While even those with the best Apple Watch models are stuck with a limitedly useful non-AI-powered Siri experience, both the latest and prior-gen Samsung and Google watches support the latter’s outstanding Gemini-powered AI voice assistant.

Another area where Google and Samsung have Apple beat is smartwatch battery life. And the gap is about to get even bigger, potentially. The new Wear Elite processor also promises faster charging times, up to 50% power-ups in ten minutes, and more notably, even better overall power management.

The takeaway

Get ready for the next-generation of Wear OS smartwatches to be supercharged with on-device AI powers that could result in an even better Gemini AI assistant experience, improved health, fitness, stress, and sleep insights, data analysis, and power management.

Furthermore, the new Snapdragon Wear Elite tech could also show up in the next generation of AI pins, which may or may not see the light of day, like those from OpenAI and Apple.

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After months of anticipation, I finally got my hands on the first laptop equipped with a Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme CPU. That's Qualcomm's most powerful chip to date, and Asus has delivered such a slim, lightweight notebook to handle its performance.

Over at CES 2026, I got the chance to check out the all-new Asus Zenbook A16 — a 16-inch laptop featuring a dazzling OLED display and weighing as little as 2.65 pounds. To put that into perspective, you'll find the smaller MacBook Air M4 weighs 2.7 pounds. But it isn't just design where this Zenbook shines.

Sporting the all-powerful Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, the Zenbook A16 is already primed to topple many of the best laptops we tested in 2025, both in performance and power efficiency. It takes what we enjoyed on last year's Asus Zenbook A14 with Snapdragon X power, from its gorgeous OLED display and insane battery life, but gives it an edge with Qualcomm's latest flagship processor.

During my brief time with the Asus Zenbook A16, I could already tell that this could be a laptop to beat in 2026. How so? Well, the benchmarks I've seen don't lie.

Asus Zenbook A16: Specs

Thinner, lighter, faster

The Asus Zenbook A16 is quite the stunner, with a full ceraluminum design that give its that premium appeal that works in an office, coffee shop — wherever you place it. But what truly impressed me was picking up.

Being 0.54 inches thin and weighing an ultra-lightweight 2.65 pounds, not only is that one of the thinnest 16-inch laptops around, but it's even lighter than 13-inch laptops. I mean, take that, 16-inch MacBook Pro (coming in at 0.6 inches and 4.7 pounds).

It's not like Asus sacrificed other premium features for this design, either. You're still getting a 16-inch 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED display with an impressive 120Hz refresh rate and crazy fast 0.2ms response time. That's a display even gaming laptops would be jealous of, and technically, this isn't one!

But the real kicker here is that Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme CPU with 18 cores and 80 TOPS for AI power. While I couldn't benchmark the laptop, I have previously benchmarked the chip, and it already beats the likes of the MacBook Pro M5, and even the M4 Pro, when it comes to multi-core performance.

That's one powerful processor, and having that in a laptop that's thinner and lighter? It's a very welcome combination. Plus, the X2 Elite Extreme has gaming chops, which will put that OLED display to good use.

Another perk from the chip is the Zenbook A16's battery life, which is claimed to be up to a whopping 21 hours. That isn't just speculation, as we've already seen the Zenbook A14 with a Snapdragon processor reach over 18 hours. It's already looking to be one of the best laptops for battery life.

Being a 16-inch laptop, it would have been nice to see the Zenbook A16 fully utilize its space by having a keyboard with a number pad, but at the same time, it makes the machine look and feel more compact.

Throw in its 48GB of DDR5X memory, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity, and this laptop ticks all the right boxes for power users on the move.

Outlook

Of course, once we get the Asus Zenbook A16 in our testing labs, we'll find out if it reaches the high bar it's setting on paper. But even from my hands-on time with the laptop, it's already one to keep an eye out for once it arrives later in 2026.

It already has to contend with the new Dell XPS 14, and its price will show just how premium this laptop will be. But in any case, I'm looking forward to seeing how far Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme pushes next-gen performance.

With mighty Intel Core Ultra Series 3 CPUs also heading to laptops this year, it's clear we're set to see a leap in mobile computing in 2026 — and we're very much here for it.

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Qualcomm has just announced its latest Snapdragon X2 Plus CPU at CES 2026, further expanding its lineup of Snapdragon X Series processors for upcoming laptops this year.

The Snapdragon X2 Plus follows the same pattern as the tech giant’s last-gen chipsets, being a step down from the already revealed Snapdragon X2 Elite (and X2 Elite Extreme). However, a significant jump in performance, battery efficiency and AI power compared to its predecessor.

Just how much of an improvement? Thanks to the third-gen Qualcomm Oryon CPU with up to 10 cores offering up to a 35% faster CPU single-core performance, 43% better power efficiency for longer battery life and 80 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) in the Hexagon NPU, expect a boost in a wide range of mid-range laptops.

Arriving in Copilot+ laptops in the first half of 2026, let's dive into what we know about the Snapdragon X2 Plus so far.

Snapdragon X2 Plus: What we know

Like the Snapdragon X2 Elite chips, the X2 Plus brings advanced performance to Arm-based laptops and aims to achieve multi-day battery life along with native built-in AI features. Think of the Plus as the mid-range to Elite’s (and Extreme’s) premium lineup.

There are two models available: the Snapdragon X2 Plus X2P-64-100 and the Snapdragon X2 Plus X2P-42-100. The former comes with a 10-core CPU, while the latter sports a 6-core CPU. Here’s a quick rundown of the specs and how they compare to their Elite counterparts:

Impressively, the Snapdragon X2 Plus also features the same Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, integrated Adreno GPU (up to 1.7GHz) with a near-30% improvement over its predecessor and the same TOPs to make it the “world’s fastest NPU for laptops.”

“Modern professionals and creators want to do more, create more, and push the limits of generative AI and all-day performance,” says Kedar Kondap, SVP and GM of computing and gaming at Qualcomm.” Snapdragon X2 Plus platform delivers the power, efficiency and intelligence to surpass their ambitions, making each experience more responsive and personal.”

That should bring a significant step up compared to the Snapdragon X Plus chip, and at a more affordable price than the Elite series. We can expect to see these chips in laptops arriving in 2026, and who knows, they may just make our list of the best laptops this year once we put them through their paces.

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Months after officially announcing its Snapdragon X2 Elite chips, Qualcomm's next-gen mobile CPUs are set to be back on show at CES 2026. And from what I've already seen, laptops are about to get a serious upgrade in performance and battery.

After benchmarking the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, I've seen how far Qualcomm has come from its previous-gen chips, the Snapdragon X Elite series. The latter were fitted in some of the best laptops around, and that's a good sign for what the X2 series will bring to the table — even compared to the latest Apple M5 processor.

But what else is in store for Qualcomm at CES 2026? As we gear up for the biggest tech event of the year, here's what you need to know about all things Snapdragon X2 series and what to expect.

Will Qualcomm have a keynote?

Qualcomm had its own special keynote over in Hawaii at its Snapdragon Summit 2025 in September, giving us a hands-on look at its upcoming Snapdragon X2 Elite and Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chips coming to laptops in 2026.

In light of this, at CES 2026, Qualcomm won't be holding a keynote like its competition, including the Intel Core Ultra Series 3 keynote and Nvidia's big announcement. However, Qualcomm will still have plenty up its sleeve, including a special guest appearance from CEO Cristiano Amon at Lenovo Tech World on January 6 at 5 p.m. PST / 8 p.m. EST / 1 a.m. GMT, fireside chats and more.

We'll be on the ground covering the latest Qualcomm has on show, so stay tuned for all the updates.

What to expect from Qualcomm at CES 2026

One thing's for sure: Qualcomm will be following up on its Snapdragon X2 series promise in this year's upcoming laptops, whether that be from Dell, Asus, Lenovo, Microsoft and more. So, expect many laptops to be announced sporting the tech giant's latest and greatest.

We do know the performance we can expect from the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme on sample machines, and how it compares to other current CPUs on the market. As you'll see below, it's quite the leap compared to the Snapdragon X Elite series.

With Amon taking to the stage at Lenovo Tech World, it's safe to say that we'll see Lenovo laptops sporting Snapdragon X2 Elite chips. A leak has confirmed that we can expect a Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, IdeaPad 5x 2-in-1 and both 13- and 15-inch IdeaPad Slim 5x laptops, and I'm sure that's only the tip of the iceberg.

The latest Snapdragon X2 Elite processors have impressed, and are sure to give Windows Copilot+ PCs a major boost in CPU, GPU and AI performance, according to the benchmarks we've seen (it's even better for gaming). So, prepare for Arm-based laptops ready for improved performance and extended battery life being revealed at CES 2026.

So, any other surprises from Qualcomm? While we're sure to see reveals about its AI advances (similar to last year), we also might see another entry to the Snapdragon X2 series. During CES 2025, Qualcomm announced its entry-level Snapdragon X chip, and we may see a similar trend happen this year.

We've seen the tech giant introduce its Snapdragon Elite, Plus and X series chips before, so there's reason to believe Qualcomm will follow suit with its next-gen X2 series. Will CES 2026 be the stage where it's all announced? It won't be long until we find out.

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• Intel Panther Lake vs Snapdragon X2 Elite vs AMD Gorgon Point — one chip is already pulling ahead in 2026's CPU war
• I think 2026 will be a breakout year for laptops and a brutal one for buyers

The world of computing has become a rather busy one over the last few years, growing from minor tech talk to one of the biggest conversation points on the planet. From the explosion in PC building popularity to being the bedrock to the AI boom (or bubble, whichever way you look at it), it all starts with a computer and its components.

And in these past few years of leading my team into this bright future, I’ve become pretty adept at reading the tea leaves on what the next big thing will be. Last year, it was GPUs. This year, it is going to be laptops, and it all starts at CES 2026.

The stars are aligning for some incredible notebooks, with breakthrough chip development, innovations in display tech and maybe a revolution in battery capacity. But there’s also a huge, costly obstacle in the way. So let’s talk about how 2026 will be the year of the laptop — based on the many people I’ve talked to and looking at the state of things going into the new year.

Everything will be OLED

So far, a lot of laptops have made the OLED transition. 2026 looks set to be the year when everyone goes all-in. From the rumored OLED MacBook Pro in the fall to the droves of Windows laptops we expect to see at CES, I’d be more shocked if I didn’t see super vibrant panels all around.

It’s becoming clear that the cost of manufacturing OLED is coming down to the point where it’s no longer a special option you can request on a spec page, but rather the default. The Lenovo Legion 5i I reviewed recently is a testament to that — a solid value for money option that comes with that mesmerizing screen.

In short, OLED is not a new standard anymore. It’s the whole thing.

The new chip wars

I’m already following every beat of the great CPU wars as they happen. But to catch you up, the battleground is set for a huge clash in Vegas: Intel vs AMD vs Qualcomm.

Intel Core Ultra 300 series (codename Panther Lake) looks set to bring the performance of Arrow Lake and power efficiency of Lunar Lake into one chunk of silicon that packs a breakthrough GPU at the same time.

AMD’s coming to Sin City with Gorgon Point (AMD Ryzen AI HX 400 series) and a rumored refresh of Strix Halo. Again, two chips that bring massive GPU power alongside renewed CPU cores and improved power efficiency to boot.

And finally, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme will bring a serious Arm-based turboboost. In my own testing, gaming performance is shockingly good, and in benchmarking, it’s faster than Apple M5.

This is going to be a crucial title fight in 2026, and they will be driving a new kind of notebook next year — one that isn’t just great at productivity performance and battery life, but just so happens to also play games rather well.

You can even see that integrated graphics are actually creeping into gaming laptops too, if you look at the leaked Panther Lake ROG Zephyrus G14.

The silicon carbon pivot?

This is more of a tin foil hat prediction rather than something based on rumors and leaks, but something I’ve been envious of seeing my colleagues in the phones team get. Seeing a same-size smartphone like the OnePlus 15 get a ludicrous battery life with a 7,300mAh cell is impressive.

The reason? Silicon-Carbon battery tech — a new kind of cell that uses silicon anodes instead of graphite, which means a 20-30% higher density of energy in the same size. Now, imagine that on a laptop scale...pretty interesting, right?

You could get a full-blown 99Wh battery in something the size of a thin notebook after all! This would tie up nicely with the power efficiency gains of the new CPUs to provide insane multi-day battery life, or even give smaller gaming laptops even more juice.

The real challenge

But there’s a problem, and it’s a big (and expensive) one. If you’ve been anywhere near a computing retailer recently, you’ll have noticed RAM prices are exploding. Talking to several companies, the tension is apparent — pricing is something nobody wants to talk about because they don’t know how bad it’ll become.

This is an ever-developing situation, and said companies are keeping tight-lipped about how much of a DRAM stockpile they’re sitting on. But one thing is becoming increasingly apparent: the cost of a laptop is going to go up slowly but surely in 2026.

DRAM pricing is even changing how companies may approach the specifications of laptops, too. Faster than you can say “it’s 2015 again,” we may see base models of mainstream systems pack only 8GB of RAM to maintain some semblance of affordability.

Now, there’s a world where this isn’t a problem…before you shout at me in the comments, let me explain. The likes of Windows 11 and macOS are impressive, feature-rich OSes, but in a lot of situations, it’s clear they’re not the most well-optimized for memory consumption. On top of that, certain apps can be RAM killers (looking at you, Google Chrome).

If this is the direction the laptop industry is forced to go, software providers need to follow suit and better optimize their work to be even more lightweight in terms of RAM requirements. If not, this could be problematic.

The buying cycle repeats

I’ll finish by giving you a peek behind the curtain. Tech publications like this one absolutely raked in affiliate revenue in 2020. I wasn’t here at the time, but for the sites I wrote for, turns out all that extra time at home gave people itchy trigger fingers to upgrade all their tech — with laptops being a particular bestseller.

Given people spend an average of three to five years using a laptop before upgrading, that makes this the time you’ll see people looking to buy again. And based on what I’m anticipating will happen in the notebook space in 2026, you’ll be spoilt for choice!

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The stage is set for a huge CPU battle in 2026, and it’s already started as Intel and Qualcomm have fired away ahead of Panther Lake and Snapdragon X2 Elite debuting early next year (read: CES 2026).

We’re also seeing leaks related to AMD and will bring to the party with Gorgon Point, and there are a lot of moving parts. So to keep track of everything, I’ll keep this hub updated with everything you need to know about the next generation of laptop and desktop chips.

Meet the competitors

• Intel “Panther Lake” (Core Ultra 300 Series) laptop chips - CONFIRMED
• Intel “Arrow Lake-S” desktop chip refresh - PREDICTED
• Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite - CONFIRMED
• AMD “Gorgon Point” (Ryzen AI 400) laptops, “Strix Halo” (Ryzen AI Max+) laptop refresh and Ryzen desktop CPUs - EXPECTED

Three big players are entering the arena: Intel, Qualcomm and AMD. They are coming in heavy with a huge suite of new chips. Let’s break it down into a battle on two fronts.

Laptops

2026 will be the year of the laptop, and we already know it's going to be a silicon bloodbath. In one corner, you’ve got Intel Panther Lake — built on the company’s 18A platform, which is a new technological foundation that brings the best of Intel’s faster chips and the more power-efficient chips into one piece of silicon.

As we’ve tested, this is looking to provide up to 50% faster CPU performance, a 50% faster GPU, up to 1.2x faster AI performance, and up to 40% higher performance per watt (better power efficiency).

In the other corner is Qualcomm. We’ve got to test the Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme, which follow a lot of the same formula as the original X Elite, bar one difference — memory (RAM) can be embedded directly onto the chip. Taking notes from Intel and AMD, the company’s now adding shared memory between the CPU, GPU and NPU.

This rethink and generational uplift is showing up to 39% faster single-core and 50% faster multi-core speeds, 69% higher memory bandwidth, 78% faster AI performance, and up to 2.3x faster graphics performance.

And in the final corner (shrouded in secrecy because this is based on leaks and rumors at the moment) is AMD. Team Red has the headline keynote slot at CES 2026, so they have to be bringing something! And that much seems true with two new laptop chip lines: Gorgon Point and a Strix Halo refresh.

Given it’s leaked on Geekbench, the AMD Ryzen AI HX 400 series (Gorgon Point) looks set to take the current core configurations you see in AMD laptops today, but give them a turboboost — specifically 15-20% higher than the previous generation. Not only that, but the leak reported by VideoCardz seemingly confirms a new generation of integrated graphics, too, that will support RDNA 3.5 — specifically the Radeon 890M.

The latter is still a possibility at the moment, but the plan seems to be a Strix Halo refresh that broadens the amount of chips available — to target both mid-range and high-end offerings with that diabolical integrated GPU. WCCF reports that these will also bring faster memory support.

Desktops

Starting with Intel, Team Blue is taking another crack at its Arrow Lake desktop chips with a refreshed range. The original launch was quite the stumble, with problems in power management, performance limitations, and some BIOS bugs, so Intel wants to take another crack at it.

Looking at leaks, it seems the company’s getting its act together with higher clock speeds, more efficiency cores, and better RAM support to overcome memory latency issues. Basically, this is a much more optimized version of the same chips.

Meanwhile, AMD seems to be all in on launching two new CPU lines at CES — the souped-up gaming-centric CPUs in the Ryzen 7 9850X3D and the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2. X3D chips are finely tuned to play super nicely with dedicated GPUs, and it seems to be more of the case here.

Second is a new Ryzen 9000G desktop APU, which is more of an all-in-one approach that updates the architecture for newer graphics standards like RDNA 3.5.

Codename translator: what will they actually be named?

• Intel Panther Lake = Core Ultra 300 Series (according to leaks)
• AMD Gorgon Point = Ryzen AI 400 series/Ryzen AI HX 400 series
• AMD Strix Halo = Ryzen AI Max series

This can get confusing. You're reading me flipping between calling the latest Intel chips "Panther Lake" and "Core Ultra 300 Series." So what will you actually be buying in retail stores in early 2026? AMD is just as guilty of this with calling their chips "Gorgon Point" and "Strix Halo."

Luckily, Qualcomm's much more straightforward with the names "Snapdragon X2 Elite" and "Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme" (even though the latter is getting a little too close to what I'd name an energy drink back in the 90s). But to help you out, let me translate the codenames here.

Intel Panther Lake

We know three levels of Panther Lake chips exist (I've tested them). But here's what the Geekbench leaks point to these being called.

• Intel Core Ultra 300V: This would be the base configuration with 8 CPU cores and 4 GPU cores
• Intel Core Ultra 300H: This name may designate the chip that sports 16 CPU cores, but ditches the GPU (the one you will probably see in gaming laptops)
• Intel Core Ultra X 300H: That X looks set to identify the top-of-the-range model with 16 CPU cores and that full-blown 12-core GPU. Geekbench results just dropped on the Ultra X9 388H.

AMD Gorgon Point

AMD's not messing too much with the formula here, and just upping the number by one. So far, leaks have shown the following chip names.

• AMD Ryzen AI 400 series: Based on the past generation, these will be the base-to-mid-range chipsets.
• AMD Ryzen AI HX 400 series: That HX stands for higher performance, so is reserved for their upper-level chipsets with faster clock speeds, higher TDPs and improved AI performance.
• Strix Halo = Ryzen AI Max+: Given the rumors of more Strix Halo chips coming to CES, it's worth me noting that for the all-in-one chips with crazy good integrated graphics, you're going to want to find the name "AMD Ryzen AI Max" followed by a number.

How they stack up (according to our tests and leaks)

• Snapdragon X2 Elite has established an early lead in CPU speeds
• Intel Panther Lake has overhauled graphics performance and power efficiency
• But AMD leaks show Gorgon Point may crash Intel’s party

To get into this, I need to break something down here — the difference between Arm and x86 computing is significant, because they go about completing tasks very differently.

So this is not just a battle of companies, it’s a battle of principles, and this shows in the performance numbers. Arm usually gets a lead on pure CPU speed and battery life, but x86 gets its advantage in graphics and compatibility.

There are going to be many more chips than what we've tested/seen leaked so far. For example, we don't have benchmarks for the top-of-the-range Panther Lake chip with a 12-core CPU. But these are a good baseline of what to expect.

When we get more benchmarks, I'll update this chart over time!

UPDATE: New leaked Geekbench benchmarks just dropped for some of the mid-range AMD and Intel chips.These numbers are (mostly) based on the leaks we’ve seen. I did get to benchmark the Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme myself, so these numbers are accurate based on my own testing. Other numbers came from leaks courtesy of VideoCardz and PC Gamer.

Geekbench CPU benchmark results

So in terms of Geekbench leaks and testing, Qualcomm has the early advantage, but that’s only half the story. Intel’s fully gone in on turboboosting those Xe3 GPU cores, and adding a whole lot of AI-infused trickery to boost gaming. In fact, it’s looking like you could get something similar to a dedicated Nvidia laptop GPU in integrated graphics.

We saw this start to happen throughout the course of this year, and while I was a little too dramatic in saying Nvidia’s days on top were numbered back on New Year’s Day, the crux of the piece is still true — integrated graphics are really taking the fight to dedicated GPUs.

That much was true with AMD Strix Halo, and the company seems to be taking another step forward performance-wise, while also broadening its range of chips available to make them more affordable, too. One step forward with Gorgon Point, while giving you more Strix choices to pick from.

What about Apple?

• M5 is already offering similar performance to what we see in Snapdragon X2 Elite
• M5 Pro architecture rumored to be altered to offer vastly improved performance

This is a big unknown heading into 2026. Apple Silicon runs on an Arm architecture, and one thing we know for sure is that the latest M5 chip in the MacBook Pro is a power-efficient screamer.

But what about the M5 Pro and M5 Max? It’s being rumored that the architecture may be getting a big switch-up from a system on a chip (everything on one die) to a system of chips (separate chiplets for each thing). As we’ve learnt from Intel Panther Lake and AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+, doing so makes for some serious performance upgrades.

We won’t know for sure until they are officially in our hands, which is looking likely to arrive in Spring 2026.

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It’s almost time for Snapdragon X2 Elite laptops to make their grand debut, and in the midst of all the benchmarking I got to do at Qualcomm’s campus in San Diego, I got the chance to do one thing I never thought I’d be allowed to: play games.

Because it is clear from the first-gen chips that gaming was a bit of a weak point for these laptops over the likes of Intel and AMD-armed systems. But once I walked into the room and saw the likes of Cyberpunk 2077 running at over 75 FPS, and Black Myth: Wukong at over 90 FPS, I’m certain that Qualcomm has addressed this issue.

The common misconception

So something that is spoken about a lot when it comes to gaming is that of compatibility, but a common mistake made here is to blame the chip as a whole — both the CPU and GPU. That’s not the case.

That GPU is 2.3x faster than the original X Elite and sports DirectX 12 Ultimate native support. The real issue comes down to taking those game instructions the CPU gives to the GPU and translating them from x86 to ARM — the two different chip architectures Windows laptops have.

So while the GPU has seen a massive upgrade, it’s really going to be those 3rd-generation Oryon CPU cores and the faster memory bandwidth that come into play here. And the results are surprising.

Let’s play

One of the big wins Qualcomm has achieved here is anti-cheat software compatibility. This was one of the main game killers that stopped a lot of titles from working, but the hard work has paid off. For example, Fortnite and Overwatch 2 are now working flawlessly here, and not only that, they run at 120 FPS.

Moving into single-player epics like Cyberpunk 2077, you can get it running at over 75 FPS with 1080p medium settings and FSR turned on. Switch ray tracing on, and that goes down to a still playable 52 FPS.

And yes, I did mention FSR. Did you know AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) scaling tech works on Snapdragon systems? Since it's an open-source standard, Qualcomm can piggyback on it and offer these far better frame rates.

Not to say there aren’t some stumbles here. Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart runs at a nicely smooth 85 FPS, but the 1% lows (average of the lowest frame rates) hit 44 FPS in my testing — a good indicator that some stuttering of loading between scenes does happen.

But elsewhere, Black Myth: Wukong managed to hit over 90 FPS at 1080p Medium. This is a solid slate of challenging AAA titles, and the X2 Elite took them all in its stride.

A notebook you can play games on

X2 Elite’s gaming performance is damn impressive, but not the best you can get on integrated graphics. The Xe3 cores of Intel Panther Lake, plus the x86 architecture of that chip, looks primed to blaze past it — especially when it comes to the new resolution scaling and multi-frame-gen XeSS tech Team Blue’s bringing to the table for it.

But picking between them is a matter of perspective: do you want a laptop that can play games, or a laptop that can “just so happen” to play games? Meaning if some AAA gaming is a required part of your notebook checklist, then Intel’s probably a better direction to head.

However, if you have a Steam library gathering dust that you jump into every now and again (meaning it’s not your priority, but you’d like the option), then the faster speeds elsewhere of the Snapdragon X2 Elite make it a better all-around chip.

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The laptop chip war of 2026 is really starting to heat up, and out of all the options I’ve tested like Apple’s M5 and Intel Panther Lake, Snapdragon X2 Elite looks like it could be a real threat.

Qualcomm flew me out to their campus in San Diego and took me properly behind the scenes on how this new generation of notebook silicon has been designed, tested, and gave me a chance to benchmark it.

And I mean really benchmark it. Usually at these events, you get cherry picked demos with vague numbers to really shine a new chip in its best light. However, here, we got three reference design laptops:

• 12-core Snapdragon X2 Elite laptop with 32GB RAM — running at 22W
• 18-core Snapdragon X2 Elite laptop with 32GB RAM — running at 22W
• 18-core Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme laptop with 48GB RAM — running at 45W

So realistic representations of the kinds of laptops you will get sporting these chips next year. Not only that, but the benchmark tests I’ve been able to do are the same ones we use to test laptops here in Tom’s Guide labs. Now we have a clear view of things, and it’s scary fast.

What’s new in X2 Elite?

With the Snapdragon X2 Elite, Qualcomm may be sticking to the same system-on-a-chip design over moving to dedicated chiplets on a system (like Intel Panther Lake). But drastic upgrades have been brought to the table nonetheless.

You’ll find more than 31 billion transistors put together on a 3nm process. With all these additional transistors, the company has added some impressive new features here:

• The 3rd generation Oryon CPU prime cores are 39% faster single-core speeds, whereas the performance cores pack up to 50% faster in multi-core.
• Memory (RAM) being embedded directly on the chip allows for 69% more memory bandwidth shared between the CPU, GPU and NPU.
• Speaking of NPU and GPU, the new Hexagon AI engine is up to 78% faster in AI tasks, and the GPU offers up to a whopping 2.3x faster graphics performance.

But alongside these performance uplifts, Qualcomm managed to sneak a couple of extra elements onto this chip. First, a new low-power island handles essential tasks when the laptop is asleep — further reducing the amount of power draw when the lid is closed.

Second, a new sensing hub is essentially a low-power chip within a chip (with its own eNPU) to handle things like enhancing webcam picture, speaker quality and WiFi connectivity.

Then comes the Snapdragon Guardian Technology — a new piece of architecture that allows you to find your laptop anywhere, remotely lock and wipe it. Think of it like Apple’s Find My, but even better because X2 Elite now packs support for 4G and 5G cellular connectivity.

Snapdragon X2 Elite benchmark results

Let’s kick off with the obvious test — Geekbench 6.5. This is an effective way to test both single-core speed (how fast you can navigate the UI and open apps), and multicore (complex tasks like rendering or loading multiple objects).

Geekbench benchmark results

As you can see, the X2 Elite surpasses Intel and AMD in single-core speeds, and even manages to keep up with Apple’s M5. But it's in those multi-core speeds where you’ll really see these chips start to peel ahead.

In fact, I think the Elite Extreme is gunning for the future in the rumored M5 Pro chip coming next year. These are mightily competitive chips.

Then there’s AI performance, and as you can see in Geekbench AI 1.5, the new generation of NPU in the X2 Elite lineage, sporting 80 TOPS of performance, frankly embarrasses the competition.

Geekbench AI benchmark results

Intel’s Panther Lake needs to pull something seriously good out of the bag here to come close to this, as Team Blue did talk about the next-gen chips being built for agentic AI. Qualcomm has the receipts to back up that the X2 silicon is more than ready for this.

Not losing performance when disconnected

Why do people pick MacBooks? I know there are a few reasons, and one of them for me is the same zippy performance both when plugged in and disconnected from the charger. It’s a small thing when I say it out loud, but you can really start to feel some sluggishness from the likes of an Intel laptop that turns the total wattage down to preserve battery life.

The ARM architecture preserves those speeds while slow sipping the juice, and that much was obvious in my own testing too:

Geekbench benchmark plugged in vs battery results

Qualcomm acknowledges that you’ll get around 97-99% of the same performance on battery, which, in my time using these laptops, is barely negligible.

X2 Elite at the front of the pack?

So here’s the ultimate question. Do these numbers indicate a chipset primed to take Windows laptops into the future? The question comes down to your particular use cases for it.

Because there are drawbacks to going ARM over the x86 of Intel and AMD. For those not in the know, Microsoft systems have run on x86 chips for the better part of 30 years, and that is a huge history of ecosystem support that needs to be forced through Prism emulation to work on Arm.

What this means is a degradation in performance that brings certain apps back in line with the speeds you get from Intel and AMD laptops. However, the list of apps that have been rebuilt for Arm is ever-growing.

If compatibility is crucial, there are still some difficulties that may impact you. However, there’s a good chance that many of you won’t see this problem, given how many are on the list. In terms of a strong all-rounder of a chip that can do it all in Windows and take the fight to Apple, Qualcomm looks prime to be in the driving seat.

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Now that Apple's M5 chip has arrived in the latest MacBook Pro and iPad Pro, we finally see the impressive performance gains it offers. But it's already found a powerful Arm-based Windows rival that's set to arrive soon: the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme.

With Qualcomm's upcoming X2 Elite chipsets coming to power a new generation of Windows Copilot+ laptops in the first half of 2026, Apple will already have a fight on its hands as the CPU race heats up (not to mention Intel Panther Lake).

Now, after benchmarking the M5 MacBook Pro in our testing labs, and testing the high-end Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, we can see just how well these chips perform — and there are some surprising results.

There's still more testing to be done with the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, as this was tested on a reference laptop with 48GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Still, it gives us a good idea of the performance to expect in upcoming machines.

So, which CPU comes out on top? Let's dive into the numbers.

Apple M5 vs Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: CPU tests

With Qualcomm boasting a 50% increase in CPU performance over its original Snapdragon X Elite chip and Apple seeing a 15% jump in power over the M4, there's clearly a drive to deliver the biggest gains over its last-gen processors.

For the most part, both tech giants achieve this, leading to some of the highest scores we've seen when it comes to CPU performance. That shows in the Geekbench 6 benchmark, which measures how fast a CPU is through handling tasks.

Just for reference, I've gathered results for both Apple and Qualcomm's previous-gen chips to show the jump in generational performance below.

When it comes to single-core performance — which is best for handling basic tasks on your laptop — Apple's M5 chip comes out on top with a 4,288 score. That's actually one of the highest scores we've seen when it comes to single-core power. However, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100 (the highest chip from the X2 Elite series) isn't far behind with a 4,074 score.

With the M5 chip already beating the Snapdragon's unreleased processor, it goes to show how far Apple has come with its M-series chipsets. But this all changes when it comes to multi-core performance, which performs best at multitasking and handling demanding apps.

The X2 Elite Extreme scored a whopping 23,449, which even outshines the powerful M4 Pro MacBook Pro's score. The M5 chip can't quite keep up, but considering the leaps it's made over its predecessor, it should still be applauded.

It's clear that the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is dishing out some majorly advanced CPU performance. However, let it be known that this is Apple's base M5 chip, as we're expecting to see the M5 Pro and M5 Max make an appearance early next year.

Apple M5 vs Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: GPU tests

We're now seeing SoCs delivering extremely impressive graphics performance, without the need for a dedicated GPU. And if the M5 chip is anything to go by, with frame rates up to 55 FPS at 1080p resolution in Resident Evil 4 Remake, and up to 120 FPS with MetalFX enabled, we're all in for a treat.

But does the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme also have the gaming chops? It sure does, with the chip bringing up to 2.3x faster performance compared to the Snapdragon X Elite when playing games like Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V.

When it comes to GPU testing, I only got to check out a few 3DMark benchmarks: Solar Bay, Wild Life Extreme and Steel Nomad Light. That's without trying to play popular PC titles, but it gives us a good comparison to measure against the M5 chip.

As it turns out, the graphics performance in several 3DMark benchmarks for both the M5 chip and Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme aren't too far apart! Although, the M5 takes the overall win here, with up to 90 FPS in Solar Bay and 73 FPS in Wild Life Extreme. Still, in Steel Nomad Light, the X2 Elite Extreme takes the win.

Both chips are well above the scores of their predecessors, and considering the results, we should be seeing the latest games run at over 60 FPS at this point. Apple has the upper hand, though, with MetalFX being able to deliver even high frame rates.

In any case, the Apple M5 with its advanced 10-core GPU and Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme's next-gen Adreno GPU are seeing an uplift in the graphics department, and that's more than a welcome sight in slim, lightweight laptops.

Apple M5 vs Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: AI tests

As with all the latest chips, AI performance plays a major role in powering the latest laptops. Apple and Qualcomm look to double down on this, with the Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme featuring 80 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second) and the M5 chip delivering up to 3.5x the AI performance over the M4.

So, how can these chips handle juggling AI tasks on PCs? Well, Qualcomm was right to claim it's offering the "world's fastest NPU for laptops."

Compared to its M5 competitor, the X2 Elite Extreme wiped the floor with its 88,615 score. Despite its strong improvements, the M5 chip still falls far behind. It's actually more than double what the previous Snapdragon X Elite could offer up.

This goes to show how much effort Qualcomm has put into its latest chipsets to achieve its superb AI performance results, so much so that it aims to continue to take a helpful load off the CPU with doing multiple tasks at once.

Apple M5 vs Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: Outlook

With Qualcomm's new chip set to be fitted in next-gen laptops in 2026, we won't have full test results until we finally get our hands on them. As you can see, though, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and the rest of its X2 lineup are a beast to compete with.

Will this make Apple sweat with its latest M5 chip? Doubtful. Sure, while the X2 Elite Extreme offers up some exemplary CPU performance, especially when it comes to multitasking, this is Qualcomm's strongest chip. And Apple has yet to reveal its full hand, with M5 Pro and M5 Max expected to be coming down the line.

Still, the latest Snapdragon X2 Elite processors impress, and are sure to give Windows Copilot+ PCs a major boost in CPU, GPU and AI performance. But Apple's M5 is already turning out to be a mighty chip for productivity and gaming, and this time next year, we may already have its M6 chip in an OLED MacBook Pro with a touchscreen.

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Wi-Fi 7 routers are just growing in popularity, but that hasn’t stopped TP-Link marching towards Wi-Fi 8. The company has confirmed that an early prototype has been successfully tested, which is a huge milestone in its development towards a public launch.

Back in July, Qualcomm broke down the aims of Wi-Fi 8 for stability and reliability. But this is the first time this tech has been tested, and following the success, I can’t wait to see a peak data rate of 23Gbps spread across my many devices at home.

The benefits are huge for AI systems, XR devices, and high-density environments like apartment blocks. Ever had that frustration in a stadium where you’re technically on a network, but getting no data? Yea, this would fix that.

What is Wi-Fi 8?

While most odd-numbered generations of Wi-Fi focus on speed boosts, even-numbered versions focus on improving reliability and efficiency, and that much is true with Wi-Fi 8. The focus is Ultra High Reliability (UHR) — aiming for consistent performance over the maximum peak speed Wi-Fi 7 brought to the table.

This is done through enhancing the range, co-ordinating multiple access points like in a mesh network, and optimizing the use of available spectrums to improve performance in low signal environments or places with a lot of network activity. Because think about it, the amount of devices around your home requiring a Wi-Fi connection has multiplied in recent years.

So focusing on the reliability is critical for assuring things like lag-free gaming and lower latency streaming without freezes — even eliminating call drops and the classic “robot voice” you hear in Zoom chats.

When will we see Wi-Fi 8?

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Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme processor has finally been unveiled, and we now have a look at the performance we can expect in upcoming Windows PCs. It's already one powerful chip, and I have the benchmarks to prove it.

During the Snapdragon Summit 2025 in Hawaii, I obtained results for Qualcomm's most powerful offering, the aptly named Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) CPU. The company promised numerous upgrades, including the "world's fastest NPU for laptops," along with up to a 50% increase in CPU performance, double the GPU power, and more.

From a look at the results, the X2 Elite Extreme delivers on its promise. Not only does it significantly surpass the Snapdragon X Elite, but also the latest processors from Apple, Intel and AMD in the best laptops on the market today.

The benchmarks were taken on a reference laptop model powered by the X2 Elite Extreme, along with 48GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. Once the chip arrives on upcoming Windows Copilot+ laptops in the first half of 2026, we'll be able to test these laptops in our own labs (along with the other Snapdragon X2 Elite CPUs).

For now, I've compiled all the testing we've done on competing chips in the best Windows laptops, as well as Apple's M4 MacBook Air and M4 Pro MacBook Pro, against the X2 Elite Extreme's benchmarks.

Ready for some numbers? Let's dive in.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: CPU tests

It's clear Qualcomm has wanted to make a big leap in generational performance in its Snapdragon X2 Elite series compared to its first-gen chips, with its third-gen 3nm Oryon CPU boasting up to 18 cores. This is said to offer a 39% increase in single-core peak performance and a 50% boost in multi-core peak performance.

As expected, this appears to be the case when it comes to Geekbench benchmark results. In both single-core and multi-core scores, the X2 Elite Extreme delivered a massive jump in numbers. Better yet, it's completely outshining its competition from Apple's M4 chips, Intel's Core Ultra 9 Series 2 processors and AMD's Ryzen AI 9 300 series CPUs.

Receiving a 4,074 single-core score and a whopping 23,449 multi-core result on Geekbench 6.5 is quite the feat, especially considering the power its competition brings to the table.

It isn't surprising that the X2 Elite Extreme wiped the floor with the Snapdragon X Elite in one of our favorite laptops, the Dell XPS 13, seeing as this is the next-gen chipset, but it's still exciting to see the gap between the two.

However, even when compared to an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H in the Asus Zenbook Duo and AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 365 in the MSI Creator A16 AI+, the X2 Elite Extreme delivers some massive gains over the competition. The same goes for the M4 MacBook Air, and that's especially apparent when it comes to the multi-core score.

What makes the Snapdragon X Elite Extreme even more impressive is its score over the M4 Pro MacBook Pro. Apple's M4 Pro is no slouch, as it's one of the most powerful laptops you can buy, but the X Elite Extreme actually gains the upper hand — even if it isn't by a massive amount. That's impressive stuff, especially for a processor designed for Windows machines.

Now, compared to a chip like the M4 Max (as we tested on the Mac Studio), the X2 Elite Extreme still falls slightly behind. The M4 Max delivered a single-core score of 4,113 and a multi-core result of 26,966. That doesn't mean the Extreme CPU isn't a mighty chip, though, as it shows that it's up there with one of the strongest processors around (plus, the M4 Max will set you back $2,000).

Overall, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is setting itself up to be one of the most powerful chips on the market. Now, we'll have to wait and see how Apple's rumored M5 chip handles the pressure.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: GPU tests

Now, when it comes to GPU testing, I only got to check out a few 3DMark benchmarks: Solar Bay, Wild Life Extreme and Steel Nomad Light. However, I did get a glimpse at Steel Nomad, too, which requires more demanding graphics power.

The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme aims to take PC gaming seriously, and the results show it can pull off some impressive performance. It's expected to offer 2.3x faster performance compared to the Snapdragon X Elite when playing games like Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V, and the results show it can do this better than other mobile chips on the market.

The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme received a score of 23,157 (88.05 FPS) in the Solar Bay benchmark, 5,628 (41.69 FPS) in Steel Nomad Light and 11,530 (69.04 FPS) in Wild Life Extreme. In Steel Nomad, I saw a score of 1,306 (13.06 FPS), but take note that this is a higher-demanding benchmark that pushes GPUs to their limits.

The Adreno GPU is being pushed even further in the X2 Elite Extreme. With these cores, I could definitely imagine seeing games like Cyberpunk 2077 hit over (or around) 60 FPS with lower settings. That's an extremely impressive result for a CPU with an integrated GPU, even though it won't match the power of a full-on RTX 50-series laptop GPU.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: NPU tests

Finally, we have tests for the Hexagon NPU in the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme. Featuring 80 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second), this blasts past the previous X Elite chip at 45 TOPS, but also processors from Intel (13 TOPS) and Apple (M4 at 38 TOPS).

During the benchmarking session at the summit, the Procyon AI Computer Vision (and Geekbench AI) benchmark, as shown by Qualcomm, revealed a significant gap in the X2 Elite Extreme's AI processing performance, which is claimed to be the "world's fastest NPU for laptops." According to these results, this rings true.

Compared to virtually all the CPUs it went up against, the X2 Elite Extreme showed over double the score by achieving 4,151 in the benchmark. It completely put the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H out of the race (understandably), but also topped the Apple M4 chip with its score of 2,121.

This was also seen in the Geekbench AI score, with the Apple M4 chip still being far behind despite being in second place in these benchmark scores.

The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is one powerful beast in all departments, and I can't wait to check it out when it finally arrives on upcoming Windows PCs in 2026. Then, we'll see these results in action (and test them ourselves on consumer laptops in our labs).

Performance isn't the only feature I'm looking forward to when it comes to Qualcomm's latest CPU offering, as there are a few features I can't wait to try on the Snapdragon X2 Elite chips.

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Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit 2025 unveiled the highly anticipated Snapdragon X2 Elite CPUs, ringing in the next-gen era of Windows PCs and the "world's fastest NPU for laptops," featuring a leap in AI processing power.

Set for release in the first half of 2026, the latest series of Qualcomm's Arm-based processors already looks to deliver a massive jump in CPU performance, over double the GPU power, multi-day battery life, and, of course, a significant boost in all things AI.

That's all compared to the original Snapdragon X Elite CPUs that kicked off the company's venture in PCs, which is quite the statement to make, considering these CPUs can still be found in the best laptops on the market today. What's more, even compared to its competition in Intel, AMD and Apple (and now even Nvidia), X2 Elite processors have a lot to show off.

There are a few Snapdragon X2 Elite features to look forward to, but how do these next-gen CPUs compare to their first-gen Snapdragon X Elite counterparts? We still need to do our own benchmark testing, but in the meantime, let's dive in.

Snapdragon X2 Elite vs Snapdragon X Elite: CPU Performance

So far, Qualcomm has announced three new Snapdragon X2 Elite processors, which include the Elite Extreme model (which is just a way of saying this chip delivers peak performance compared to the rest). Just from the specs on paper, there is a clear uplift in power that can be seen from even the strongest Snapdragon X Elite CPU.

Here's a look at the specs in the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) and Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-88-100) compared to the Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-84-100).

From the number of CPU cores and max boost frequency to processor cache, there's a clear major jump in specs, even without the "Extreme" moniker. As noted by Qualcomm, this translates to a 39% increase in single-core peak performance and a whopping 50% uplift in multi-core peak performance.

While we'll have to wait and see how these improved specs perform in the next-gen Oryon CPU (based on a 3nm process), we can still gauge how much stronger it will be compared to a Windows laptop running a Snapdragon X Elite processor.

Taking a look at the Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-80-100) in the Dell XPS 13 (2024), which achieved some of the highest scores when first benchmarking Snapdragon X Elite laptops, the gains here should be jaw-dropping.

With the X Elite scoring 2,797 single-core and 14,635 multi-core in Geekbench, the expected improvements Qualcomm claims should see the Snapdragon X2 Elite (at least the Extreme model) see scores skyrocket to 3,887 single-core and 21,952 multi-core. That's nearly on par with the MacBook Pro with M4 Pro (3,910 and 22,822, respectively).

While the Snapdragon X Elite offered impressive performance at the time, even surpassing the likes of an M3 MacBook Air, the Snapdragon X2 Elite CPUs aim to deliver a next-gen leap in CPU power.

Snapdragon X2 Elite vs Snapdragon X Elite: GPU Performance

I've written about how the Snapdragon X2 Elite shows that Qualcomm is getting serious about PC gaming, and from the numbers the company boasts, this should prove to be true compared to the Snapdragon X Elite chips.

The upgraded Adreno GPU in the X2 Elite series brings a boost in frequency rates, which aims to bring up to 2.3x graphics power when playing the latest demanding PC games.

Interestingly, the Snapdragon X2 Elite processors also come with support for 5K resolution at 60Hz across three displays. The X Elite can only support dual 5K displays at 60Hz, or three screens with 4K resolution at 60Hz.

This makes the X2 Elite's support for 4K (3840 x 2160) at 144Hz all the more impressive, and that's a high bar for high-end gaming. Now, the question is whether the Snapdragon X2 Elite can deliver the boosted gaming performance. Here's a look at the numbers Qualcomm claims the next-gen chips will offer in the latest games:

• GTA V: 1.6x
• Street Fighter 6: 1.8x
• Far Cry 6: 1.9x
• Dirt 5: 2.0x
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: 2.0x
• Cyberpunk 2077: 2.1x
• Read Dead Redemption 2: 2.1x
• Black Myth Wukong: 2.1x
• Hitman World of Assassin: 2.2x

As I've previously noted, we tested Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V when gaming on a Snapdragon X Elite laptop, with frame rates at 30 FPS and 57 FPS at around low-to-medium settings, respectively. From what Qualcomm states, we will see these games shoot up to 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at possibly higher settings, and close to 100 FPS in GTA V.

That's exciting stuff, but we won't know until we get some real-life testing done on upcoming laptops sporting Snapdragon X2 Elite processors.

Snapdragon X2 Elite vs Snapdragon X Elite: AI Performance

The Hexagon NPU continues to be one of Qualcomm's biggest selling points, with the first wave of Snapdragon X Elite processors topping (no pun intended) at 45 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second). This component alleviates pressure from the CPU and GPU when put to work, leaving more space for the Oryon and Adreno units to work at maximum potential.

So, with the Snapdragon X2 Elite's 80 TOPS, this should kick on-device AI processing (no need for the cloud) to an even higher gear. That makes it (currently) the most powerful NPU in laptops, nearly doubling what the Snapdragon X Elite processors can handle.

In fact, Qualcomm states we can see a 78% increase in peak NPU performance compared to the previous generation, and according to the Procyon AI Computer Vision benchmarks the company showed during the keynote, we can expect up to 5.7x faster AI processing than some of the strongest silicon on the market today.

Time will tell how much stronger the X2 Elite chips are over the first-gen X Elite processors, but considering the level-up in TOPS and the comparisons made with 2025's lineup of silicon, we're sure to see a worthwhile jump in AI performance.

Snapdragon X2 Elite vs Snapdragon X Elite: Features

As it turns out, there aren't too many differences between the Snapdragon X2 Elite and X Elite processors when it comes to features, as these share Wi-Fi 7 and 5G connectivity (with the X2 series coming with Bluetooth 5.4). But there are still a few features worth noting.

As claimed, the Snapdragon X2 Elite will come with "multi-day" battery life. That's a bold claim, but one that has some legs to stand on. The Dell XPS 13 with a Snapdragon X Elite is one of the best laptops for battery life at nearly 20 hours, which is only an hour away from the M4 Pro MacBook Pro at just under 21 hours.

With a multi-day battery, we're hoping to see the chip's power efficiency boost the longevity of Windows laptops by a significant margin — likely over the claimed 27 hours of battery life in the Dell Premium 16. Of course, it depends on the laptops that manufacturers develop, too.

Another interesting feature coming with X2 Elite chips is Snapdragon Guardian. This PC management tool allows users to locate, lock and wipe data from their device via a Snapdragon Guardian app. So, no matter where you are in the world, you just need a cellular connection to find your misplaced laptop, lock it from a remote location or wipe it clean before threat actors get to it if it's stolen.

Even when these devices are "offline, powered down or unbootable," the built-in cellular modems, 4G, 5G, and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity allow them to be managed at any point.

There are sure to be more features that will utilize the next-gen power of Snapdragon X2 Elite processors from third-party developers, but that isn't to say the original Snapdragon X Elite CPUs won't get the same treatment (they're in the same family, after all).

For more on Qualcomm's latest offerings, check out all you need to know about its next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip for smartphones.

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Now that Qualcomm has finally announced its Snapdragon X2 Elite CPUs, including an all-new X2 Elite Extreme chipset, we have a better idea of what these next-gen Arm-based processors can bring to upcoming Windows PCs. And it's already looking mighty.

Throughout the Snapdragon Summit 2025, I've been hearing how the X2 Elite series will offer up the "world's fastest NPU for laptops." From the brief comparisons shown at the keynote, it's made abundantly clear that Qualcomm will deliver on this promise.

Being up to 5.7x faster than its competition is a bold statement, considering the company specifically calls out some of the strongest CPUs in the best laptops right now, such as the Intel Core Ultra 9 285H, AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Apple's M4 chip.

That Hexagon NPU with 80 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second) of AI performance is already one major feature to look forward to, but the Snapdragon X2 Elite has other tricks up its sleeve.

While we wait for the first set of laptops (and other platforms) with Snapdragon X2 Elite chips to arrive sometime in spring 2026, here's a look at what else Qualcomm's next-gen processors are bringing to the table.

Faster CPU performance

When we benchmarked the first Snapdragon X Elite CPUs, we were majorly impressed with how they measured up to their competition at the time. Now, Qualcomm appears to be at it again, with a significant uplift in CPU performance.

Now, as always, we still need to do our own testing, but it's already looking like there will be a clear difference in the speeds we get in Windows PC sporting X2 Elite — and especially X2 Elite Extreme — processors. First, we know there will be a claimed 39% increase in single-core performance, and up to a more impressive 50% boost in multi-core speeds, compared to its first-gen chipsets.

Comparing this to the Dell XPS 13 with a Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100, which scored 2,797 single-core and 14,635 multi-core in Geekbench, it means we could see scores reach 3,887 single-core and 21,952 multi-core. That's just pure speculation, but those are some crazy numbers compared to, say, an M4 MacBook Air.

That should be all thanks to the 18 CPU cores (12 prime cores, 6 performance cores) fitted in its third-gen Oryon CPU. And take note, this will be on two of the three chips announced — not just the X2 Elite Extreme processor.

While the AI power is seeing major gains, so too is CPU performance, and it will be great to see how the next suite of Windows PCs will leverage this power.

PC gaming gets a boost

I'm happy to see that Qualcomm is taking PC gaming seriously with its X2 Elite offerings, as it was one of the main talking points during the big reveal. As in, up to a claimed 2.3x faster graphics performance in its advanced Adreno GPU.

This may not mean much, considering gaming on a Snapdragon X Elite laptop wasn't the main selling point, but what we do know is how much better it will handle even the latest, highly demanding PC games.

For instance, we tested Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V on a Snapdragon X Elite laptop, with frame rates at 30 FPS and 57 FPS at around low-to-medium settings, respectively. From what Qualcomm states, we will see these games shoot up to 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at possibly higher settings, and close to 100 FPS in GTA V.

• GTA V: 1.6x
• Street Fighter 6: 1.8x
• Far Cry 6: 1.9x
• Dirt 5: 2.0x
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: 2.0x
• Cyberpunk 2077: 2.1x
• Read Dead Redemption 2: 2.1x
• Black Myth Wukong: 2.1x
• Hitman World of Assassin: 2.2x

More upcoming PC titles will need to be optimized for the Snapdragon X2 Elite platform, but the company has stated it's working on just that. And it's bringing in a few more gamer-ready features, such as anti-cheat software support from Epic, Razer's Synapse app to bring more to a gamer-ready setup and an on-device AI experience in Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition using the X2 Elite's NPU.

Improved gaming on ultra-thin laptops? That's what we've been wanting to see from the Nvidia and Intel partnership in its upcoming x86 RTX chips. But Snapdragon CPUs are now also in the mix, and we'll have to see what this improved gaming performance delivers.

Going big on battery life

According to Qualcomm, battery life is the biggest factor for consumers choosing their next laptop. Well, it certainly helps, and if there's one feature I'd want to see these Snapdragon X2 Elite chips offer, it's the "multi-day" battery life that the company is touting.

Already, Qualcomm has done well in this department. The Dell XPS 13 with a Snapdragon X Elite is still one of the best laptops for battery life at nearly 20 hours, going head-to-head with beasts like the M4 Pro MacBook Pro at just under 21 hours.

As the company has stated time and time again, Snapdragon X-equipped laptops still deliver maximum performance when unplugged, with the X2 Elite series claimed to bring even better power efficiency, while its competitors comparatively require "222% more power" to reach their peak performance.

The real question, though, is whether we will see this "multi-day" battery life. We've heard of laptops expected to offer up to a whopping 27 hours in the Dell Premium 16, but since the claimed 20-hour battery in the Dell Premium 14 didn't pan out (tested at just over eight hours, actually), I'll believe it when I see it.

In any case, all signs are pointing towards a huge boost in battery life in Windows laptops rocking a Snapdragon X2 Elite, and that's a huge boon for workers on the move.

Remote security

Nobody likes having their personal items stolen, especially when it comes to a pricey laptop. It was made apparent in the keynote that 12,000 laptops are lost weekly in airports (although it appears this figure can be traced back to research done in 2008), but Qualcomm is bringing a new way to manage security on X2 Elite laptops.

With its Snapdragon Guardian, users have the ability to locate, lock and wipe data from their device via a Snapdragon Guardian app. With just a cellular connection, you can find your misplaced laptop, lock it from a remote location or wipe it clean before threat actors get to it if it's stolen.

That's a major win for security, and I saw this in action during a demo. What's more, even when these devices are "offline, powered down or unbootable," the built-in cellular modems, and 4G, 5G and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, allow them to be managed at any point.

Hopefully, it's something that won't be used as much, but for security purposes, this is a feature that will be hugely beneficial.

Not just laptops

While Snapdragon X processors have become synonymous with laptops, the Snapdragon X2 Elite chips will be made for more than just mobile computing. While only showcased during the event (and in lovely red styling), we should see these CPUs come in mini PCs and AICs (all-in-one), too.

Mini PCs have become a popular option for many, bringing the performance of a desktop in a much smaller form factor that's even easy enough to travel around with. Plus, these have become more affordable options, with the Mac mini M4 being a standout. Bringing Qualcomm's next chips to more computer platforms is a step in the right direction, as it expands what these processors can accomplish beyond just laptops.

We'll have to see how these perform, especially considering they won't need the advantage of battery life. But I'm more excited to see what other form factors we'll find Snapdragon X2 chips in, even if that means a push towards gaming handhelds.

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Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit 2025 is bringing us an all-new Humain Horizon Pro laptop. Announced today (September 25), the new laptop aims to tackle the "future of agentic AI personal computing."

The Humain Horizon Pro laptop, powered by the Snapdragon X Elite processor, is the first PC from global AI company Humain, established in Saudi Arabia. Not only is it designed with agentic AI in mind, but it also comes with its own "Humain One OS" — an AI-powered interface.

Announced during a fireside chat with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon and Humain CEO Tareq Amin at the company's annual event, the AI-first laptop brings a recreated "operating system," named Humain One. It runs on Windows on Arm, and it wants to deliver the next step in agentic AI on a PC.

This AI interface is expected to be designed as a "unified, adaptive interface to manage enterprise workflows, communications, and AI applications." Interestingly, it claims to also operate up to "100 times faster than human thought." If anything, this shows what the Snapdragon X Series processor can offer.

Here's a sneak peek at the OS, according to its Humain website.

As for what else we know, the Horizon Pro laptop is also set to arrive with up to 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and 18 hours of battery life. Apparently, the Horizon Pro laptop will also deliver a 14-inch 2.8K OLED with a 16:10 aspect ratio from Samsung. Take note, it doesn't run on the recently announced Snapdragon X2 Elite CPU.

What's more, it comes with a 40% reduction in power consumption compared to competing systems (another prop to Snapdragon X Elite), and it integrates an Arabic-first Saudi LLM known as “ALLAM.” This operates locally on device, but apparently other AI models can be used, too.

“The Humain Horizon Pro represents the future of intelligent personal computing. Powered by our Snapdragon X Elite processors, it delivers groundbreaking performance and innovative AI-first experiences for enterprises and consumers," Qualcomm's Amon said.

“The Humain Horizon Pro represents a paradigm shift in agentic AI personal computing, especially for enterprise environments where AI actively collaborates with users, both locally and in the cloud, to boost productivity," said Humain's Amin.

The all-new Humain Horizon Pro laptop will be available to consumers and businesses around the globe, although there's no release date just yet. However, those interested can register to be an "early adopter" at the humain.ai website.

Pricing has yet to be announced, but we do know it will also be available via a monthly subscription to Humain's AI solutions suite for enterprise. But this is also for the general consumer, too.

There's still plenty to learn about Humain's AI-first Horizon Pro PC and its Humain One OS, so stay tuned for more!

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While Qualcomm has been bragging about its all-new Snapdragon X2 Elite CPUs being equipped with the "world's fastest NPU for laptops," I've been focused on another key aspect that should make these chips for upcoming Windows PCs a certified win: PC gaming.

Being able to play the latest PC games on ultra-thin Windows laptops is finally taking shape, and slowly, we'll start to see less of a need for full-blown discrete GPUs like Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics cards. I mean, if the best gaming handhelds can play demanding titles with a single chip like the latest AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, what's stopping laptops?

Now, I've been wanting this to happen in the form of Nvidia's rumored N1X chips, and in the recent Nvidia and Intel partnership for Intel x86 RTX silicon. But with Qualcomm's Arm-based Snapdragon X2 Elite (and Elite Extreme) chipsets, PC gaming is taking priority.

In fact, the X2 Elite Extreme is specifically "Snapdragon's biggest advancement in PC gaming," as noted by Qualcomm's SVP of Compute and Gaming, Kedar Kondap, during the keynote. With the gains over its previous-gen processors, I'd believe it, but there's still some work to be done.

In any case, Qualcomm is finally stepping up to the plate by bringing something that many Windows users all secretly (and no-so secretly) want, and its Snapdragon X2 Elite brings the gaming goods.

Doubling performance

"X2" is a fitting name for Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon chips, as it also appears to mean the multiplied performance we can expect across the board when it comes to PC gaming on these machines.

With an 18-core Oryon CPU (to put that into perspective, Apple's M4 Max comes with a maximum of 16 CPU cores) split between prime and performance cores, an advanced Adreno GPU and max boot frequencies of 5.0GHz (1.85 GHz for the GPU), it's hardly a surprise that X2 Elite Extreme claims to bring up to a 50% performance boost.

But it's also coming with 2.3x faster peak GPU performance compared to last-gen processors. That translates to higher graphics settings and faster frame rates, which (I hope) is a huge win for playing the latest AAA PC games on ultra-thin laptops.

Just how much faster? According to Qualcomm, this includes the following:

• GTA V: 1.6x
• Street Fighter 6: 1.8x
• Far Cry 6: 1.9x
• Dirt 5: 2.0x
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider: 2.0x
• Cyberpunk 2077: 2.1x
• Read Dead Redemption 2: 2.1x
• Black Myth Wukong: 2.1x
• Hitman World of Assassin: 2.2x

Okay, that isn't much to go on. But we have tested gaming on a Snapdragon X Elite laptop, including Cyberpunk 2077 and GTA V. In Cyberpunk, we saw an average frame rate of 30 FPS with 2880 x 1620 resolution and low settings, and 57 FPS in GTA V at 1080p resolution at low-to-medium settings.

With all this in mind, that means we can expect to see over 60 FPS in Cyberpunk 2077 at possibly higher settings, and close to 100 FPS in GTA V. Does that match the heights of the best gaming laptops? No, but that's still a surprisingly capable machine that's built to be thin and light, and with long-lasting battery life.

It's not just for laptops either, as the Snapdragon X2 Elite chipsets will be coming in different form factors, such as mini PCs and all-in-ones. That means gaming on these platforms will also see a boost in gaming performance, which is hugely welcome!

Yes, the competition like AMD's Ryzen AI Max 395+ in the Asus ROG Flow Z13 already shows the type of gaming performance that can be had out of an APU, but that's one pricey machine (over $2,000), and doesn't reach the heights of a battery-efficient laptop, unlike a Snapdragon X Elite device (think nearly 20 hours of battery life in the the Dell XPS 13).

Now, we won't know how the latest Snapdragon chips will perform until we get our hands on them in spring 2026 (stay tuned for benchmarks). But so far, gaming with these chips already looks promising.

Building past casual gaming

Qualcomm is finally making its stamp on gaming with its Snapdragon X2 Elite CPUs, but it still has a way to go.

It's nice to see that it's supporting anti-cheat software from Epic to bring more competitive shooters (Fortnite, of course) into the ring, and that Qualcomm is partnering with Razer to optimize its Synapse app on X2 Elite systems. It's even bringing an on-device AI experience in Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition using the X2 Elite's NPU.

However, these are still stepping stones in pushing PC gaming on Snapdragon devices further. As noted by Qualcomm's Group GM of Mobile, Compute and XR, Alex Katouzian, Snapdragon X series was "never advertised as a gaming platform, ever... until now." That's true, seeing as its chip was made to drive through productivity and creative work.

"It's a really, really good casual gaming platform," Katouzian said. "The more we attract from developers, we're going to see an increase in development of graphics, and take it step by step."

I mean, it's clear that X2 Elite, and especially the Elite Extreme model, will be capable of playing the best PC games, and at much higher performance. But there's still a long way to go to reach the heights of a discrete GPU. That said, for those of us who mainly use a laptop for work and like gaming when they get the chance, this type of performance won't be sneezed at — and certainly not by me.

The takeaway

We may already have stunning, sleek gaming laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and Razer Blade 14, but combining AI power, battery efficiency and gaming performance in a single Arm-based chip in the Snapdragon X2 Elite series already looks to be a compelling choice for PC gamers — even if they err more on the casual side.

We know big manufacturers like Asus, HP and more will be delivering laptops (and possibly other platforms) equipped with Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme chips on devices starting to arrive in the first half of 2026. That's when we'll know for sure just what the laptops are capable of gaming-wise.

Will the Nvidia and Intel partnership see its all-new processors with an Nvidia GPU built in surpass Qualcomm's next-gen chip? Only time will tell, but if we're seeing a new era of PC gaming on thinner, lighter laptops, then you won't see me complaining.

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The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 announced by Qualcomm this week is certainly a powerful chip, and I've got the benchmarks to prove it. Thanks to improvements covering the CPU and GPU on the new chip, Qualcomm's latest silicon races past the iPhone 17 Pro models and their A19 Pro system-on-chip in many key tests, suggesting you're in for some impressive performance should you buy one of the Android phones that uses the newest Snapdragon chip in the coming months.

And yet, as impressive as the early benchmarks are, that's not what grabs my attention when I look at the full scope of improvements Qualcomm is promising for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Rather, it's promised AI improvements that make this system-on-chip a potential standout.

Specifically, in its Snapdragon 8 Elite marketing material, Qualcomm touts "truly personalized agentic AI assistants to take user- tailored actions across apps." We haven't heard too much in the way of specifics during this week's Snapdragon Summit, which I'm attending at Qualcomm's invitation. But it sounds an awful lot like the cross-app actions that made Samsung's Galaxy S25 phones stand out are about to get more powerful — and maybe even appear on other Android phones running Qualcomm's latest silicon.

If so, that's a big step forward that will have a lasting impact beyond the gains we can expect from the CPU and GPU on board the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

Why cross-app actions rule

If you haven't had a chance to use cross-app actions on the latest Galaxy phones, here's how it works in a nutshell. You can aske the Gemini assistant to perform multiple tasks that cut across different apps with just one command. As an example, you might ask the assistant to look up information about a magazine's location and hours, text that information to a friend and then create a calendar entry for the day you plan on visiting. With cross-app actions, you can handle that all at once.

A lot of AI features on phones can feel like gimmicks, but cross-app actions is truly useful, simplifying a task that used to take multiple steps across different apps. It's easily my favorite thing about the Galaxy S25.

I don't know if other Android phones are going to follow Samsung's lede, but it certainly sounds like the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 gives them both the horsepower and cognitive power to do so. In addition to the improved speed that the chipset's 3rd-generation Chyron CPU brings to the table, the redesigned Hexagon neural processing unit is 37% faster while also improving performance per watt by 16%.

That means the NPU is able to do more calculations faster while consuming less power — just the sort of thing you need to have if you're going to be turning to more AI agents to handle tasks on your phone.

"It's how that power translates into seamless AI features that feel natural, intuitive and genuinely useful," said Alex Katouzian, group general manager of mobile, compute and XR at Qualcomm, when talking about the Hexagon improvements during the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 silicon yesterday (September 24).

Other parts of the new system-on-chip will play a part in powering more AI-based agents localized on your phone and ready to do your bidding. The Qualcomm Sensing Hub — a Snapdragon mainstay that serves as a low-power, always-on system that's constantly (and securely) collecting data about you and your surroundings that it can act upon — gets updated with a Personal Scribe feature with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. It's designed to build a knowledge graph about you so that AI agents can do their thing.

What better AI means for Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 — and beyond

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In introducing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, Qualcomm said it intended to make the "world's fastest mobile system on chip." Based on our look at some Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 benchmarks ahead of the chip's announcement, it may not just be marketing hype.

I had a chance to benchmark the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 on a Qualcomm-supplied reference device during this week's Snapdragon Summit, which I'm attending as a guest of the chip maker. And on most of the tests I ran, the Qualcomm-powered device produced the best numbers I've seen from a mobile device — including the just-released iPhone 17 Pro Max and its A19 Pro chipset.

If you remember from our iPhone 17 Pro benchmarks, the A19 Pro powering Apple's latest Pro phones had jumped ahead of Qualcomm's current Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon in many key tests. Most notably, the A19 Pro had closed the gap with Qualcomm's chip on graphics benchmarks, even outperforming phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra on some tests.

Now it seems that Qualcomm is returning the favor with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. While the chipset isn't powering any currently available phones — that'll change soon, Qualcomm says — it will start appearing in a number of leading Android devices, including, we assume, some of the Galaxy S26 phones coming out early next year. And that will give us a chance to see if these initial strong numbers hold up in actual devices.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 specs

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is built on a 3nm process and draws much of its processing power from a 3rd generation Oryon CPU. The 8-core CPU features two main cores running at 4.6GHz and six 3.6GHz performance cores.

For graphics, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 uses an Adreno GPU with a sliced architecture; each slice runs at 1.2GHz.

All of that should translate to a 20% improvement in single-thread Geekbench performance over the current Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm says, while multicore scores should go up by 17%. Qualcomm expects a 23% improvement in graphics performance.

The test device I used for benchmarking featured a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset optimized for performance. The 6.8-inch phone was loaded with 24GB of memory, which doubtlessly helped the new Snapdragon chipset show off its performance chops.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Geekbench scores

Geekbench measures CPU performance, showing off both single-core and multicore results. The former result illustrates how a CPU performs for tasks like web browsing while multicore numbers reflect tasks like multitasking. It's a helpful number for comparing performance by devices using different chipsets.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 certainly delivered on Qualcomm's predicted 20% boost to single-core Geekbench numbers, beating the Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered Galaxy S25 Ultra by 26%. Multicore numbers saw a 24% improvement from one generation to the next.

But it's the iPhone 17 Pro Max comparison that will draw the most attention. While Apple's phone still posts the better single-core result, if only by a little, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5's 12,208 figure on the multicore test was 22% better than the result we just recorded for the iPhone 17 Pro Max's A19 Pro silicon. That would seem to suggest Android phones that turn to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will likely enjoy an edge when it comes to multitasking and running processor-intensive apps.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 graphics scores

Recent iterations of the premium Snapdragon chipset have shown big gains in graphics performance, so much so that Apple had to scramble to close the gap with the A19 Pro. Apple succeeded, but our initial Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 benchmarks indicate that Qualcomm's silicon is inching back ahead.

On 3DMark's Solar Bay Unlimited test, the iPhone 17 Pro Max had posted the best frame rates we've seen at 46.63 frames per second, finishing ahead of the Galaxy S25 Ultra's 42.36 fps result. But the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered device pulls ahead with a 55.31 fps tally, beating last year's Snapdragon chip by 30% and topping the A19 Pro by 19%.

Likewise, on the more demanding Wild Life Extreme Unlimited test, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 posted a 40.83 fps score. That's better than both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max, which finished pretty much even on that test.

3DMark's Steel Nomad Light Unlimited is one area where the iPhone 17 Pro Max still enjoys a lead over Qualcomm's latest chip, but only just. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 posted a 18.19 fps result that fell just shy of the A19 Pro's 18.63 fps average.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 video transcode testing

A real-world test Tom's Guide likes to run involves transcoding a video using Adobe Premiere Rush and timing the results. It's a test that Apple's iPhone has typically dominated, completing the test in half the time it takes the best Android phones.

Qualcomm officials emphasized to me that this particular reference device hadn't been optimized for video transcoding, so take these results with a grain of salt. But the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 still managed to shave 5 seconds off the time it took the Galaxy S25 Ultra to transcode a video.

It's still a far cry from the 22 seconds it takes the A19 Pro-powered iPhone 17 Pro Max to complete that task, but it's certainly a step in the right direction for the latest Qualcomm silicon.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 outlook

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The leaks of Snapdragon X2 CPUs have finally been realized, as Qualcomm has revealed its next set of CPUs to power the latest PCs — Snapdragon X2 Elite and a whole new set of Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chips are here.

During the Snapdragon Summit 2025, Qualcomm finally announced its next Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and Snapdragon X2 Elite CPUs, its next-gen silicon to boost performance and efficiency in lightweight Windows laptops, and beyond (mini PCs included).

Not only can we expect up to 75% faster CPU performance in its third-gen 3nm Oryon CPU, but the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme also delivers a 2.3x uplift in graphics power and efficiency in its upgraded Adreno GPU, while also featuring up to 80 TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second) in its Hexagon NPU to bring the "world’s fastest NPU for laptops."

Qualcomm was the first to bring AI performance to Windows Copilot+ PCs, and it aims to boost performance, power efficiency and AI power with its next-gen chips — this time with an Extreme CPU contender.

The first devices with Snapdragon X2 Elite chips are expected to launch in the first half of 2026. In the meantime, here's what we know about Qualcomm's next-gen chips.

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: Specs

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: What we know

Just from their specs, the Snapdragon X2 Elite CPUs already show a major boost over the last Snapdragon X Elite chips. This includes up to 18 CPU cores (12 prime cores, 6 performance cores), which is up from the Snapdragon X Elite's 12 cores, 1.85 GHz max frequency in its next-gen Adreno GPU and 80 TOPS for improved AI performance — nearly double the amount of the original X Elite's 45 TOPS.

So far, three CPUs have been announced, including the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and two other X2 Elite chips. Compared to its previous-gen processors, Qualcomm claims its latest chipset delivers 31% faster performance at ISO power and only needs 43% less power, translating to greater battery life.

What really brings the heat is the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, set for "ultra-premium PCs." This chip will take full advantage of agentic AI, and aims to offer high-end performance for photo and video editing, data analytics and, of course, gaming in thin-and-light Windows PCs.

As for the upgraded Adreno GPU, the Snapdragon X2 Elite series claims to boost graphics quality and frame rates (including ray tracing), all while making the most of power efficiency to improve battery life.

The Snapdragon X2 Elite-series chips also offer Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, while support for Snapdragon X75 5G Modem also means the latest in 5G connectivity.

While the boost in performance is sure to impress, Qualcomm also points out that we'll see multi-day battery life. Snapdragon chips are known for delivering the best battery life in laptops, with the Dell XPS 13 boasting nearly 20 hours of battery. With Snapdragon X2 Elite chips, we expect to see huge improvements.

Can it game?

As we've seen when gaming on a Snapdragon X Elite laptop, Qualcomm's chips are capable of playing the latest PC games while saving battery. However, X2 Elite looks to deliver even more.

In fact, PCs with Snapdragon X2 Elite chips will offer up to 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution with 144Hz refresh rates on their displays. That's on par with some of the best gaming laptops, all without a discrete GPU to deliver ultra-thin PCs. Of course, we'll have to see how these CPUs perform once we get hands-on time with them (more on that soon).

“Snapdragon X2 Elite strengthens our leadership in the PC industry, providing legendary leaps in performance, AI processing and battery life to enable the experiences that consumers deserve,” says Qualcomm's SVP and GM of compute and gaming, Kedar Kondap.

Kondap continues: “We continue to push the boundaries of technological innovation, introduce breakthrough products that set new industry standards and redefine what’s possible for PCs.”

That's not all that was announced during Qualcomm's annual Snapdragon Summit, as CEO Cristiano Amon announced that 6G connectivity will arrive in devices as early as 2028.

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Qualcomm is gearing up to reveal its next set of products at its Snapdragon Summit 2025, with rumors about its Snapdragon X2 chip heating up. But in a kickoff to the event today (September 23), the company brought up another next-gen technology — 6G connectivity

During the Vision Keynote presentation at its annual event, CEO Cristiano Amon revealed that Qualcomm will be ready to have the first set of devices with 6G connectivity "as early as 2028."

That's pre-commercial devices, by the way, which means test devices that will be able to show off 6G's capabilities, so don't start budgeting for your 6G phone now. Still, it's an important milestone as industry leaders like Qualcomm turn their attention to the upcoming 6G wireless standard.

This would be the next step over 5G connectivity, which is now commonly seen in the best phones today. In the U.S., 5G launched commercially in 2019.

"We have been very busy working on the next generation of connectivity...which is 6G. Designed to be the connection between the cloud and Edge devices," Amon said.

"The difference between 5G and 6G, besides increasing the speeds, increasing broadband, increasing the amount of data, it's also a network that has intelligence to have perception and sensor data," Amon added. "We're going to have completely new use cases for this network of intelligence — connecting the edge and the cloud.

"We have been working on this for a while, and it's sooner than you think. We are ready to have pre-commercial devices with 6G as early as 2028. We're going to have context-aware intelligence at scale."

Looking ahead at the future of devices, Amon noted that 6G would play a key role in the evolution of AI technology, with AI models becoming hybrid. This includes a combination of cloud and edge devices (like user interfaces, sensors, etc). According to Qualcomm, 6G will make this happen.

While Apple has already talked about working on 6G as far back as 2021, we're now seeing how 6G will be implemented and when it will start to arrive. While Amon states the next-gen connectivity will be seen in "pre-commercial" devices first, we're sure to see companies adopt 6G not long after — potentially before the end of this decade.

That's still a while away, but seeing as how we could buy the first 5G phones six years ago, it's now time for the next level of connectivity in 6G. We're sure to see faster network speeds with higher amounts of data, but it's also set to help bring more out of AI in devices.

Again, it's still early days, and we won't know the full extent of 6G until it arrives. But according to Qualcomm, we'll start to see what it can achieve as soon as 2028. We're on the ground at Snapdragon Summit 2025, so stay tuned for even more updates from Qualcomm (fingers crossed for next-gen chips).

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It's been over a year since Qualcomm unleashed its Snapdragon X Series CPUs on the first lineup of Copilot+ PCs, and now it's time for next-gen processors — with the rumored Snapdragon X2 CPUs expected to be just around the corner.

With Qualcomm's range of Snapdragon X chips, including the Snapdragon X Elite, Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X, the company gave Windows laptops the performance and energy efficiency to rival its competitors. Even giving Apple's M-series CPUs a run for their money.

In fact, one of the best laptops still around is the Dell XPS 13 with a Snapdragon X Elite processor, boasting nearly 20 hours of battery life and performance nearly on a par with the MacBook Air M3. However, that was over a year ago, and new Apple, Intel and AMD chips have arrived to deliver AI-powered improvements (even a rumored Nvidia N1X CPU is expected to be in the works).

But this could all change very soon with the arrival of Snapdragon X2 CPUs. With Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit 2025 announced and rumors indicating an all-new chipset with incredible specs, all signs are pointing to a fresh slate of processors. And soon.

Let's dive into what we know so far.

Snapdragon X2: Rumored release date

This should be an easy one. Qualcomm is holding its annual Snapdragon Summit on September 23, 2025, taking place in Hawaii. That should set the stage for a Snapdragon X2 Series announcement.

The keynote is expected to take place on September 23, with CEO Cristiano Amon taking the stage to hopefully announce the latest CPUs. Of course, we won't know for sure until the event takes place, but there's a good chance this will be where the tech giant spills the beans on its next laptop processors.

With the Snapdragon X Elite chip announced during the Snapdragon Summit 2023, we may at least see a Snapdragon X2 Elite arrive. It wasn't until April 2024 that we saw the Snapdragon X Plus, and then CES 2025 when we saw the Snapdragon X CPU.

But many believed Qualcomm would announce its Snapdragon X2 lineup at Computex 2025, which didn't turn out to be the case. Amon specifically said: "There will be no focus on chip announcements" at the event. So, it's still unclear if we will see Snapdragon X CPUs by the end of September after all.

That said, right at the end of the Qualcomm keynote, Amon confirmed that "the revolution continues at Summit 2025." Now, that's heavily implying that Snapdragon X2 is set to be revealed in September.

As for when the Snapdragon X2 chips will launch in laptops, this may not be until early 2026 — if the X Elite laptop launch is anything to go by.

Snapdragon X2: Performance

If there's one thing that's certain about Qualcomm's chips, it's that the Snapdragon X Series delivers an exceptional balance of performance and power efficiency.

The tech giant even slammed Intel for being able to run a laptop at "max performance when unplugged." This was made apparent when I saw how a Snapdragon X Elite could outperform an Intel CPU. But, of course, it depends on the laptop they're powering, too.

With this being the case, what performance can we expect in the rumored Snapdragon X2 processors? According to known leaker Roland Quandt (via TechPowerUp), the Snapdragon X2 Elite looks to be a powerful chip. It's expected to be an 18-core CPU based on Oryon V3 CPU architecture.

SC8480XP aka SD X2 Elite in testing with 64GB RAM... looking like 18 core thing more and more.

— @rquandt.bsky.social (@rquandt.bsky.social.bsky.social) 2025-09-05T20:15:51.102Z

Interestingly, the tipster notes that it's being tested on 64GB configurations, showcasing the type of laptops and possibly even desktops that will best suit the performance of the chip.

Compared to the Snapdragon X Elite, which features 12 cores, a base clock of 3.4 GHz, and 45 TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second), the X2 Elite appears to have a 50% increase in CPU cores. There have been murmurs that this would see up to a 30% increase in single-thread performance, and an even bigger increase in multi-thread performance.

All of this translates to better performance in PCs, which may outclass the current roster of CPUs, including the Intel Core Ultra 2 series, AMD Ryzen AI 300 and M4 chips in MacBooks.

We'll get a proper gauge of what to expect once Qualcomm officially announces its Snapdragon X2 Elite processor, and it's likely X2 Plus and X2 chips. But it may not just be for laptops this time around.

Snapdragon X2: More than laptops?

As mentioned, the Snapdragon X2 Elite looks to come packed with plenty of performance power, and rumors (via Tom's Hardware) suggest Qualcomm may be looking to bring its next-gen CPU lineup to desktops, too.

This comes from a leak indicating that Qualcomm tested its X2 Elite with 120mm AIO cooling solutions. This is an all-in-one cooling system usually found in desktop towers to keep components nice and cool.

It wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility, as Qualcomm's range of Snapdragon chips can be found in a majority of devices. That includes smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S25, tablets including the RedMagic Astra for gaming, the Meta Quest 3 and more. It's even taking the lead with new tech in XR glasses.

These are all different SoCs for different platforms, but seeing how it's expected that Snapdragon X2 chips will be in more than just laptops, it wouldn't be completely shocking.

Snapdragon X2: Worth the wait?

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Qualcomm is on a mission to solve a big issue with the best AR glasses we see today, and it's teaming up with Belgian deep-tech startup VoxelSensors to do it: longer-lasting smart glasses without compromise.

Using Snapdragon XR platforms, VoxelSensors is bringing its new Single Photon Active Event Sensor (SPAES) 3D sensing to achieve two key features — up to 10x power savings with lower latency using XR apps in smart glasses and advancing Physical AI.

What does this mean for next-gen AR glasses? It brings spatial computing to more lightweight, everyday specs with more realistic XR visuals. If it brings better battery life, smart glasses will be a lot more viable.

But how does it all work? Let's dive into it.

Power efficiency is key

This is a huge step forward for AR glasses, as it not only extends the use of these specs but also brings smaller, more portable AR smart glasses with spatial computing capabilities closer to reality. By using Snapdragon XR chips, which can be found in devices like the TCL RayNeo X3 Pro, Snap Spectacles (for developers) and more, SPAES aims to deliver an XR experience in glasses for all-day wear.

With the lower latency and improvements in power efficiency, VoxelSensors' new 3D sensing tech looks to make Physical AI more easily accessible to AR glasses. As for what that is, Physical AI sees the world around you and interprets what you see. That's like Meta AI's visual intelligence in the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. However, it aims to push "wider environments posing challenging conditions like variable lighting and power constraints."

So, expect smart glasses with Snapdragon XR processors using VoxelSensors tech to be able to recognize products and bring up reviews automatically, give you real-time navigation while walking around and more with XR-like visuals on display.

This isn't too unlike what we've seen in previous smart glasses, like the Even Realities G1 AI glasses and their 640x200 virtual screen. But that's only a dot matrix green display; VoxelSensors tech aims to deliver a virtual experience on the level of the upcoming AndroidXR.

"For the XR industry to expand, Qualcomm Technologies is committed to enabling smaller, faster, and more power-efficient devices," said Ziad Asghar, SVP & GM of XR at Qualcomm Technologies.

Asghar continues: "We see great potential for small, lightweight AR smart glasses that consumers can wear all day. VoxelSensors’ technology offers the potential to deliver higher performance rates with significantly lower power consumption, which is needed to achieve this vision."

Future-look

While smart glasses have seen major improvements over the years, they're still limited by their battery and capabilities. Namely, the Oakley Meta HSTN impressively features eight hours of battery life with Meta AI visual intelligence, but it stops short of bringing AR features. And eight hours doesn't bring "all-day wear."

Then there's the Viture Luma Pro, AR glasses boasting a Sony Micro-OLED display with a 152-inch virtual screen with 1200p resolution. But these have to be plugged in to be of any use, and they aren't exactly specs you'll wear all day (they are chunky).

With VoxelSensors' collaboration with Qualcomm, this may all change in next-gen smart glasses. We'll have to see how all this works out, though, but it's looking like AR glasses with an everyday appeal will become a reality closer than we think.

It will be a while before with see this SPAES 3D sensing tech arrive, though. As announced, it will be available on Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 platforms and available to customers and partners by December 2025.

Will we see the same arrive on Snapdragon AR1+? It's unclear, and it will be interesting to see how this tech takes effect (perhaps the Meta Quest 4 will make use of it). Either way, smartglasses are on the rise, and Qualcomm's partnership with VoxelSensors looks like it's heading in the right direction.

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Just when I thought Wi-Fi couldn’t get any better after the jump from Wi-Fi 6E to Wi-Fi 7, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Wi-Fi Alliance are already hard at work on the next wireless standard. Though Wi-Fi 8 is very much still in the planning stage at this point, after learning more about its potential to transform wireless connectivity as we know it, I’m already excited for a world where every large network you connect to will soon feel more like a mesh one.

For those not up to date on the latest Wi-Fi developments, let me break it down for you real quick. Although it was an extension rather than a brand-new wireless standard, Wi-Fi 6E was actually a really big deal when it launched back in 2020. The reason being is that up until that point, there were only two wireless bands to work with: 2.4 and 5 GHz. Wi-Fi 6E added another band that utilized the 6GHz spectrum, which had just become available. Not only is the 6GHz band faster, but it’s also less congested as most laptops and phones still use the 5GHz band while the best smart home devices and other less data-hungry gadgets use the 2.4 GHz band.

Then came Wi-Fi 7, which added a ton of new features like 4K-QAM modulation for increased throughput and Multi-Link Operation (MLO) for improved reliability and speed while still providing access to that faster 6GHz band. Now with Wi-Fi 8, though, the focus is less on speed and more on reliability.

After speaking with the Vice President of Technical Standards at Qualcomm, Rolf de Vegt, I’m even more optimistic about Wi-Fi 8 and the future of wireless connectivity as one of the key features of the next wireless standard will allow everyone to experience exactly what I did when I switched from using one of the best Wi-Fi routers to a mesh Wi-Fi system.

No match for mesh

Don’t get me wrong, making the switch to a new traditional Wi-Fi router over, say, the one your internet service provider gave you when you signed up, will certainly be a big and noticeable upgrade. However, if you live in a larger home or apartment, your download and upload speeds will be better, but your overall experience might not.

The reason behind this is due to one of the most pesky nuisances in the world of home networking: Wi-Fi dead zones. When you’re up close to your router, you’ll get a strong and reliable signal. However, what happens when you walk away from it and are out of range? You know those spots around your home — like in that faraway room on the other side of your house or even out in your garage — where you just can’t get a signal. Those are Wi-Fi dead zones.

There are several solutions to deal with this problem, from adding one of the best Wi-Fi extenders at the edge of your home network to using your home’s electric lines and a pair of the best powerline adapters to increase the range of your home network. However, from my own personal experience, which involved trying both of these solutions, neither really did the trick. I was about to give up and just live with poor wireless connectivity in certain areas of my home until I decided to go all in by upgrading to one of the best mesh Wi-Fi systems.

Unlike a traditional router, a mesh Wi-Fi system or mesh router isn’t actually a single device designed to fix your Wi-Fi problems. Instead, it’s two to three (or even more) devices working together simultaneously to push your Wi-Fi signal even farther. With this kind of setup, you have one device that serves as your main router and gets plugged into one of the best cable modems or an Optical Network Terminal (ONT) if you have fiber internet and the rest of them, referred to as satellites or nodes, are spread throughout your home. These satellites then relay the Wi-Fi signal from your router to one another, which results in your house being blanketed with a strong wireless signal.

If you live in a big house and want to finally put an end to those Wi-Fi dead spots for good, I wholeheartedly recommend upgrading to a mesh network. The big advantage this offers over using a Wi-Fi extender is that your devices are seamlessly handed off from one satellite to the next. What does this all have to do with Wi-Fi 8 though? Well, once the next wireless standard is widely adopted, you’re going to get the same experience moving from one access point to another on much larger networks thanks to a brand new Wi-Fi 8 feature.

Saying goodbye to awkward handoffs

While we spend a majority of our time online on smaller networks like the ones we have at home, chances are you’ve probably connected to a much bigger network more often than you think. For example, maybe you’ve signed onto the network at a college campus, at a large corporate office or even at the airport.

In the same way that a mesh Wi-Fi system is able to blanket your whole house with a single, seamless network, Wi-Fi 8’s Single Mobility Domains will make it possible to achieve this same experience across larger networks that cover vast spaces like the ones described above.

As Rolf de Vegt points out in his blog post, once this new capability is finalized in the upcoming Wi-Fi 8 standard, it will enable seamless roaming across multiple access points. That way, you won’t have to deal with the interruptions or packet drops that are caused when devices like your smartphone or laptop are handed off from one access point to another.

Vegt goes a step further in his explanation though by pointing out how Single Mobility Domains will give the Wi-Fi 8-equipped devices of the future a “once connected, always connected” experience. This will be achieved by “maintaining continuous, low-latency connections” as these devices physically move from one access point to the next one.

Here’s a real-world example that you might have experienced yourself if you work in a large office and have to book meeting rooms for video calls. Let’s say you’re in a meeting that runs over and somebody else needs to use the space as they have it booked for that time. You grab your laptop and look for somewhere else to go to finish off your call. However, as you leave the meeting room and head farther away from it, the people on the other end notice a dip in your video or audio quality or perhaps the call on your end freezes completely. Well, with Single Mobility Domains, this scenario could soon be a thing of the past.

With an estimated finalization date of sometime in 2028 and then consumer devices rolling out in 2029 or 2030, Wi-Fi 8 is still a ways off. However, the advantages and benefits of the next wireless standard are slowly starting to take shape even now in the concept stage.

The future is already here with Wi-Fi 7

If you want a significantly better Wi-Fi experience, you don’t have to wait five years for Wi-Fi 8 networking devices and clients to start rolling out and then another two to three years for them to become widely available and then somewhat affordable. Instead, you can give your home network a huge boost right now with one of the best Wi-Fi 7 routers.

The first wave of Wi-Fi 7-powered routers started releasing back in 2023 but it wasn’t until the following January that the Wi-Fi Alliance actually formalized the latest wireless standard. In the years since, we’ve seen networking equipment makers release their top-of-the-line flagship devices but now, they’ve begun shipping much more affordable mid-range and even budget ones.

For those who want to take full advantage of Wi-Fi 7 though, I recommend spending a bit more on a tri-band device — either a traditional router or a mesh one if your home or apartment is large enough — with support for all three wireless bands. Over the course of this year, companies have begun releasing dual-band Wi-Fi 7 devices like the Asus TUF Gaming BE6500 router or the MSI Roamii BE Lite mesh system. You’ll pay a bit less for a dual-band device but if you have the internet speeds for it and really want to experience fast Wi-Fi for yourself, then getting a Wi-Fi 7 router with support for the 6GHz band is a must.

For a traditional router with a slightly different design, I recommend taking a look at the TP-Link Archer BE800 or if your budget is a bit smaller, the Archer BE550 is a very capable device too, especially at around $300. Now on the mesh front, the Netgear Orbi 870 is a great higher-end option with fantastic range but there’s also Amazon’s own eero Pro 7 which is perfect for smart homes with Alexa-enabled devices. There are plenty of other great options too and I suggest you check out the rest of our guides and reviews before making your final decision.

Finding the right device for your home is the first step to unlocking a fast and stable Wi-Fi connection. This is the kind of thing most of us take for granted, that is until the internet goes down. However, as I can almost guarantee Wi-Fi is something anyone reading this article uses everyday, it’s worth investing in a good traditional router or a mesh router. Right now too, you won’t have to worry about buyer’s remorse and wishing you had waited for the next wireless standard as we’re years away from Wi-Fi 8’s launch.

Personally, though, I can’t wait to see what the next wireless standard brings and while faster speeds are always great, at the end of the day, improved reliability is even better.

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Google has released security patches for six total vulnerabilities in its Android August 2025 update including two for Qualcomm flaws that have been used in targeted attacks.

As reported by Bleeping Computer, both flaws were initially reported by Google's Android Security team in January 2025.

The first bug (tracked as CVE-2025-21479) is a weakness in the graphics framework that can lead to memory corruption because of an unauthorized command execution in the GPU microcode. Meanwhile, the second bug (tracked as CVE-2025-27038), is a use-after-free vulnerability which also causes memory issues, this time while rendering graphics using Adreno GPU drivers in Chrome.

In June, Google integrated the patches Qualcomm had announced. That same month, Qualcomm also stated that there had been evidence from Google’s Threat Analysis Group that the two security bugs had been exploited in targeted attacks.

In the same announcement, the company said that the patches for its Adreno GPU had been made available to OEMs in May and strongly recommended that those companies deploy the update.

Additionally, these two security bugs were added to CISA’s catalog as well, making it on the list of actively exploited vulnerabilities on June 3rd. CISA ordered federal agencies to update and secure their devices by June 24th.

Other updates in the Android August 2025 security update include a security vulnerability in the System component that attackers, even those without the necessary privileges, can use to achieve remote code execution when chained with other flaws but only in attacks that don’t require user interaction.

The two sets of security patches that have been issued are 8/1/2025 and 8/5/2025; as usual, Pixel devices will immediately receive updates while other handsets will have theirs rolled out as the hardware manufacturers have time to test the updates against the hardware configurations.

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As we enter the doldrums of summer, Qualcomm, like many companies, is sharing revenue and future forecasting in its quarterly earnings call (via Android Central). The company hit double-digit growth, earning $10.4 billion in Q3 2025.

Qualcomm announced that the next Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset will come out at the end of September and that Xiaomi will be the first OEM to get the powerful chip.

"We are already working with several OEMs for launch of new devices based on a tremendous interest in it," Amon said. "And what you are seeing is really people getting ready for launch of new devices."

The company announced that Chinese phone maker Xiaomi will be the "first OEM to launch with our next Snapdragon 8 Elite chip." Not a huge surprise since the Xiaomi 15 was announced as the first device to feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite last year. It was quickly followed by options from Honor and OnePlus.

Some details of the expected Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 have already leaked, hinting at a huge performance boost. The chip could have a CPU running at 4.6GHz and a GPU at 12GHz, faster than the current chip, which is set at 4.47GHz.

Qualcomm earning notable information

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The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 — the chipset expected to power the Samsung Galaxy S26, OnePlus 14 and more phones next year — looks to be way more powerful than today's best smartphone chips, says leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo.

DCS explains this by talking about the chip's clock speeds, with the CPU running at 4.6GHz and the GPU at 12.GHz.

Those numbers perhaps don't mean much to you by themselves, but generally the higher the frequency, the faster a chip runs and the more powerful it is.

While Qualcomm, maker of the Snapdragon chips, has apparently decreased the CPU frequency from 5GHz in earlier tests, it's still running quicker than the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which is set to 4.47GHz.

Plus, this latest iteration of the 8 Elite Gen 2 still apparently hits the 4-million mark on the AnTuTu benchmark, way ahead of the 2.6 million score that currently tops the leaderboard.

This could be 2026's best smartphone chip

This info builds on previous DCS leaks, where they detailed that the 8 Elite Gen 2 will be a third-generation 3-nanometer chip, built by TSMC, using a 2+6 prime/performance core arrangement with 2nd-gen Oryon CPU cores and an Adreno 840 GPU.

Simply put, this chip will use the latest construction methods, the same internal set-up as the 8 Elite chip it'll replace, and the newest processing tech.

Despite that, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 may not cost any more than the 8 Elite does. Good news for consumers and manufacturers alike.

We can fairly safely assume that Qualcomm will also be working on an even faster version for later in 2026. That includes Samsung, who has been using "For Galaxy" variants of the latest Snapdragon flagship silicon for the past few years in Galaxy S and Galaxy Z models.

A generic "Leading Version" will likely launch midway through 2026, and be used in certain performance-focused phones launching in the latter half of the year.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2's main opponent will be, as always, Apple's latest iPhones and the new chips within. In September, we should see the iPhone 17 series debut along with the A19 and A19 Pro chips, and we'll be paying close attention to their performance.

Apple's A-series chips have not had a leap forward in chip power in the past few years like Snapdragon 8 chips have, so we could be in for a close competition.

Qualcomm normally introduces its new Snapdragon 8 series chips to the world in fall each year, during an annual event in Hawaii. This year's Snapdragon Summit is already in the calendar for September 23 - 25, so we should hopefully get the full details of this new smartphone powerhouse then.

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When it comes to flagship Android phones and chips, Qualcomm's run of Snapdragon 8 processors have been the go to for the best Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

Part of the problem is Qualcomm has raised the prices for its flagship system-on-chip every year for the last couple of generations. And that may have contributed to price increases on phones powered by that silicon.

However, a new report from regular leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo indicates that Qualcomm might not raise prices on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. According to a machine translation of that DCS post, the "new machine can theoretically maintain the original price."

Qualcomm's Gen 2 chip is rumored to make a massive leap in both CPU and GPU performance, so little or no movement on price is a big deal.

How will this affect future Android phones

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Apple recently released the iPhone 16e, which includes the C1 modem, the first built in-house. However, it seems Qualcomm has commissioned Cellular Insights to compare the iPhone 16e's connection abilities to two Android phones to see which is best.

All three devices were placed in various real-world environments around New York while connected to T-Mobile’s sub-6GHz network. According to the report, the phones were all tested in near, far and mid-cell conditions in an attempt to get the most comprehensive results.

Now, the report doesn't specify which Android devices were used, but we can make an educated guess. The first device is stated to be a January 2025 flagship with an X80 modem and a $799 price tag. Meanwhile, the second was a January 2024 flagship with the older Snapdragon X75 modem and a $619 price tag. As such, we can guess that the two models were the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S24, respectively.

What was the end result?

The report found that the Android phones offered a 34.3% to 35.2% faster download speed than the iPhone 16e, while also featuring an 81.4% to 91% faster upload speed. Now, it should be noted that the report found that all three devices offered "somewhat comparable 5G performance under ideal, near-cell conditions, performance deltas became increasingly pronounced as signal conditions deteriorated."

The reason for this disparity is suggested to be due to Qualcomm modems supporting downlink carrier aggregation and uplink carrier aggregation features. If you've not heard of these terms, they're essentially techniques used in cellular networks that increase the bandwidth and data rates by combining multiple data channels.

The C1 modem also lacks mmWave 5G support, which is usually found in urban areas and offers the fastest speeds.

It is important to take this with a healthy level of salt for several reasons. Firstly, this is a report commissioned by Qualcomm, so there's always a level of bias in the end report. Secondly, this test was only on a single network. Meanwhile, an Ookla comparison revealed that the iPhone 16e modem far exceeded the iPhone 16 on all networks.

Finally, and arguably more importantly, Qualcomm has been the leader in cellular modems for over a decade, so it knows how to get the most out of its hardware. As such, Apple's first modem managing to outperform it completely would be unlikely.

So, what do you take away from this comparison? The main takeaway is that T-Mobile users in areas with no or limited coverage would be much better served by owning one of the best Android phones. However, if you live in a city with better coverage, then you really won't notice the difference in 5G connection.

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Computex 2025 is kicking off, and Acer has a whole lineup of laptops, monitors and more to reveal at the event — including all-new Aspire 14 and 16 AI Copilot+ PCs.

Acer announced six new 14-inch and 16-inch Aspire laptops, with several configurations that include the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 2, AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series and Snapdragon X Series processors.

With AI CPUs onboard, these Copilot+ PCs will arrive with the latest AI features, such as Click to Do, Recall (in preview), improved Windows Search and Acer's own suite of AI apps, such as AcerSense, LiveArt 2.0 and more.

Set to be at "pocket-friendly" prices, the Aspire 14 and 16 AI notebooks are geared toward students and professionals, with thin, lightweight designs so they can be moved around with ease. Plus, you can expect 120Hz displays with 180-degree hinges, and they even come in glorious OLED.

Prices start at €899/AUD$1,399 (around $999/£799), with the first set of Aspire AI laptops being available in select regions this June. Will the best contenders as the best laptops for students? Judging by their specs, they certainly stand a chance.

Acer Aspire 14 and 16 AI: Specs

Acer Aspire 14 AI: Portable power for students

The 14-inch laptop is becoming a popular sizes for students or workers, probably because they offer that blend of a sizeable enough display along with relative portability. The new Acer Aspire 14 AI looks to fit into that description and be a great pick for those on the move. Thanks to its varied CPUs, this notebook range aims to deliver plenty of performance and battery life.

The Intel model boasts up to a Core Ultra 7 258V CPU and Intel Arc 140V for graphics, making it a speedy machine that can even do a little 1080p gaming and medium settings on the side. This configuration also comes with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity.

Interestingly, thanks to its 65Wh battery, it claims to last over 26 hours with video playback!

As for the AMD configuration, expect up to an AMD Ryzen AI 7 35 CPU and integrated AMD Radeon 86M graphics. This is based on Zen 5 architecture, so expect this machine to also pack great performance. According to specs, this is a step down in connectivity, as it brings Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 instead. Apparently, it also lasts over 18 hours on video playback, so not as good of a deal compared to Intel.

Lastly, the Snapdragon variant delivers Snapdragon X performance at both the CPU (Oryon), GPU (Adreno) and NPU (Hexagon) level. You can also expect Wi-Fi 7 here, but with Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. However, this Aspire 14 AI is the most affordable of the bunch.

Snapdragon X-equipped Acer Aspire 14 AI laptops start at €899 / AUD$1,399 (around $999 / £799) with availability in June, with the Intel and AMD configurations available for €999 / AUD$1,499 (around $1,099 / £899) in July.

Otherwise, these laptops match the design and portable appeal of its predecessors (like the Acer Aspire Go 15), but with upgraded specs and bigger, stylish designs. Plus, it offers up to a 14-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 16:10 aspect ratio.

So far, these laptops could make for excellent additions in our best business laptops and Windows laptops guides. Of course, we'll have to get some hands-on time with them to see if they work as well on paper.

Acer Aspire 16 AI: The bigger option

Are there any big differences in the Acer Aspire 16 AI laptop? Not really, aside from the larger 16-inch WUXGA+ (2048 x 1280) OLED panel with a 120Hz refresh rate and 16:10 aspect ratio. More screen real estate and better resolution — similar to the MacBook Air M4 13-inch and Air M4 15-inch models.

The 16-inch laptop is set to arrive later than the Aspire 14, and is priced slightly higher. Again, the Snapdragon configuration offers more value, available from €999 / AUD$1,499 (around $1,099 / £899) in July. Both the Intel and AMD models start at €1,099 / AUD$1,499 (around $1,199 / £999), and will be available in August.

There will be plenty more on show at Computex 2025, and we'll be on the floor to fill you in all there is to know — including a possible laptop CPU from Nvidia and MediaTek.

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Another chip rivalry is brewing, and this time, Qualcomm's Snapdragon Series X CPUs are taking the gloves off to show how Intel chips can't keep up — and it's pretty ruthless.

In a set of three new ads, Qualcomm targets Intel by stating that Snapdragon PCs run at max performance when it's unplugged, while an Intel-based laptop "drops to as little as 55%." Plus, the company ridicules its competition's battery life, with Snapdragon Series X offering "the fastest PCs with multi-day battery life" compared to Intel PCs getting "left behind."

There's a lot of spice being thrown around, with two of the ads, "The Max Performance You Deserve" and "Office Tripped," being more comical in the way they bash Intel with its 55% unplugged power. As for "What's the Intel," it outright dishes out the heat with a sly "here's a little intel on what's really inside."

The next ad focuses even more on that 55% performance, playing up different scenarios where people "give 55%." That includes a sports coach motivating their team, a company offering a bonus, an officiant asking wedding vows, and a commander inspiring soldiers to fight for their country.

It's a funny take, with a office worker at the end stating "PCs powered by Intel can cut performance by up to 55% when unplugged, but with Snapdragon X series, max performance when unplugged.

The final ad sees office workers in different scenarios where everything only works in half, like cutting paper with one blade of a scissors, an elevator being halfway up a level, a man's suit being cut in half and more. The main statement is "when PC's powered by Intel perform at 55% when unplugged, it's like your whole team does."

It's clear that Qualcomm wants buyers to know that Snapdragon-powered laptops can deliver better performance for those who often use their PCs unplugged. After all, the point of a laptop is for it to be portable, and the tech giant is hammering in that point by throwing shade at Intel.

Can Qualcomm back up these big claims? A look at the small print shows that it's done the benchmarking, but it may leave out other key details.

A closer look

Qualcomm states these tests were based on Geekbench 6.2 single-core scores on WIindows 11 in October 2024, running a Dell XPS 13 with a Snapdragon X Elite and a Dell XPS 13 with an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V CPU — two laptops we've compared.

For the most part, Qualcomm is on point with the type of performance it states. The XPS 13 with Snapdragon X Elite achieved 2,797 in our Geekbench test, while the Intel-based XPS 13 reached 2,772. What's more, multi-score performance saw 14,635 and 11,033, respectively.

As for battery, the Snapdragon-equipped laptop reached 20 hours and 51 minutes, while the Intel-based PC held out for 17 hours and 29 minutes. So, the Snapdragon X Elite does shine in these results.

All that said, laptops come in all sorts of different configurations from different brands, and Qualcomm doesn't mention if the performance of an Intel-based laptop is still better than one with a Snapdragon X Elite one, despite the unplugged performance.

In our benchmark tests compared Intel Lunar Lake chips with Snapdragon X series and Apple M3 chips, we saw various results and Intel laptops came out on top in certain scenarios.

Earlier this year, I saw how Snapdragon X series chips outperform Intel CPUs during a tech demo, with Qualcomm stating its Elite chips offer a 90% performance increase over Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 2 chips when unplugged.

Still, when it comes to other areas of computing, as you'll find in the best gaming laptops and best laptops for video editing, Qualcomm still has some work to do. For now, it's witty ads make a point.

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Snapdragon has released its latest chip: the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, which could appear in some of the best Android phones.

Originally reported by Android Authority, Qualcomm announced the new chip in China, although without the expected Snapdragon 8s Elite moniker that you might expect after the Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm's current top-performing smartphone chip was announced last year.

The biggest difference between the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and its predecessor is that the new chip does not have any small cores in its design. Dropping the small cores will have the benefit of improving the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4’s multi-core performance. Qualcomm has stated that users can expect a 31% CPU improvement over last year's Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.

The new chip also uses the same Adreno GPU with the sliced architecture that featured on the Snapdragon 8 Elite seen in the Galaxy S25 series. A slide shared by Qualcomm China on Weibo suggested that the chip will feature two slices, meaning it is designed to be used in conjunction with other identical chips to improve processing power.

For reference, the Snapdragon 8 Elite features three slices. The new Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 also features 12 MB of dedicated memory. As such, we can likely expect a 49% graphical boost over the older model, as well as ray tracing support and the firm’s Game Super Resolution 2.0 tech.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 also promises to improve AI performance on devices, due to featuring a faster NPU and twice the shared memory compared to the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. As such, Qualcomm claims that the chip will allow for 44% faster AI performance for devices with the chip.

The new chip will reportedly also support 320MP images, 108MP single camera support with multi-frame processing and 36MP cameras. When it comes to video, the new chip can support 4K videos with 30 frames per second in low light, as well as offering real-time skin tone and sky tone correction.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 also introduces two connectivity upgrades, namely Bluetooth 6.0 and XPAN support. XPAN, if you’ve not heard of the term, means you can connect to compatible wireless earbuds over WiFi, rather than requiring a Bluetooth connection.

The chip also includes an unspecified 4nm design, which would allow the chip to offer improved performance while being smaller in size, 144Hz refresh rate support at QHD+ or WQHD+ resolution, aptX Adaptive/Lossless/Voice integration, Quick Charge 5, and Wi-Fi 7. Qualcomm also stated that the phone will bring a 5G modem with peak download speeds of 4.2 gigabytes per second, although it appears to lack mmWave support.

While we don’t have any word on which models will see the chip, we expect that it will feature in cheaper devices from brands like Xiaomi and OnePlus in the near future. The previous chip, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, is expected to be included in the Nothing Phone (3), so perhaps we'll see a future Nothing handset use it too.

Overall, the Snapdragon 8s gen 4 looks to be a marked improvement over the older model, but we won’t know for sure until we have a chance to put a device with it installed through its paces. We would expect, however, that any phones with it installed would be in with a chance of finding a place in our best cheap phones list.

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Google Pixel handsets aside, the best Android phones use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. It’s a chipset that goes toe-to-toe with Apple’s A18 Pro used in the iPhone 16 Pro, and two new leaks have given us an idea of how its successor will keep things competitive with the iPhone 17.

First up, on Weibo, the reliable leaker Digital Chat Station has what he claims to be raw specifications of SM8850 — the model number for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2.

While the layout is the same, with two prime cores and six performance cores, there are still some noteworthy improvements. For starters, the leaker says that it will be built to TSMC’s N3P process, for a smaller, more efficient design. It will also pack the Adreno 840 GPU — a step up from the 830 used on its predecessor.

Perhaps more importantly, the leaker says that it supports SME1 and SVE2 extensions. These relate to machine learning, computer vision and other related fields, and, as Android Authority explains, the support for SVE2 suggests that the chipset is built on ArmV9 architecture. That’s a big step up from the Elite 8, which was built on ArmV8.

Clock speeds aren’t revealed here, but on X, the leaker Jukanlosreve not only reports that the GPU will be 1.35GHz (up from 1.1GHz on the 830), but gives us an insight into what kind of performance boost the new chipset will bring to the table. We’re apparently looking at a 25% boost to single-core performance and 20% for multi-core.

A worthy iPhone 17 competitor?

If past Qualcomm releases are anything to go by, we’d expect the company to reveal the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 between October and November. It will then gradually filter through to Android flagships over the next few months, with the first major release expected to be the Samsung Galaxy S26 early next year.

That means it will arrive after the A19 chipset debuts in the iPhone 17 range in September. It is also tipped to be using TSMC’s N3P fabrication process, and while we haven’t heard anything definitive, Apple tends to boost performance by around 20% each generation.

After a period of having the upper hand over Qualcomm, it’s become extremely close with the Snapdragon 8 series. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset achieved Geekbench scores of 3,031 and 9,829 to the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 3,386 and 8,306. While we wrote that the S25 Ultra “blew away” the iPhone on the 3DMark Solar Bay Unlimited test, there’s every chance Apple could flip that around this time.

Ultimately, a lot is still unknown, and with six months to go until the iPhone 17 launches, there’s plenty of time for more to emerge about the two competing chipsets before they go head to head in the winter.

Not sure if you've noticed, but AI is everywhere.

From our smartphones and laptops to the more specific Nvidia RTX 50-series GPUs and yes, even Rabbit R1s, artificial intelligence has snuck into our lives and taken over — whether we notice it or not.

We've seen the best AI video generators, like Sora, completely "wow" us with near-immediate, lifelike visuals and AI-powered productivity platforms like ChatGPT, Google Gemini and Grok offer wild features, like easily creating a video game to doing a full-blown deep dive into a family history. And that's just the tip of the digital iceberg.

AI's use cases are exponential, but if you're wondering how exactly AI is changing the way you go about your day, especially in our devices like laptops, you're not alone.

As an example, we've seen Microsoft's Copilot+ PCs and Apple Intelligence in iPhones, iPads and MacBooks, being able to generate and edit images, summarize documents and translate or transcribe audio. However, these haven't exactly been the game-changers companies want them to be.

The hype for AI in laptops doesn't appear to be quite there yet, with many believing that AI PCs are “gimmicky.” So, what is the next big step for AI in our devices?

I sat down with Nitin Kumar, VP, Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., to discuss how AI is evolving in PCs with Snapdragon X and what we can expect in the future.

What does the future of AI in PCs look like?

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Series chips were the first to kick off the AI generation in Copilot+ PCs, bringing 40 TOPS (trillions of operations per second), speedier performance and better power efficiency for longer battery life.

These chips can be impressive, so much so that the Dell XPS 13 with a Snapdragon X Elite topped our list of best laptops. Now, with the rest of the lineup out, including the Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X, I wondered if this "first generation" of sorts was finished with and what was coming next in laptops.

But I was corrected.

"I could be off a little bit, but let's say there are over 50 designs launched across all our OEM partners in the marketplace already, and we have more than 80 designs launched or coming in pipeline," said Kumar. "So we’re not done yet with our first generation."

"Look, our promise is delivering the value proposition of performance, low power consumption, battery life on AI devices, and new IDs, thinner IDs, IDs where less thermal is the requirement and you don't need the fan to turn on as often or the fan noise is sort of non-existent — our goal for 2025 is to continue and enrich the experience more and more."

Sure, we've heard rumors about Snapdragon X2, but the focus for Qualcomm appears to lie elsewhere. More specifically, in apps.

"We are very heavily working with the app ecosystem to bring more applications to fundamentally take the advantage of our Snapdragon architecture, to leverage and optimize more experiences on the NPU (neural processing engine)," Kumar explains.

"[We want] to drive different experiences across both consumer and commercial fronts as well that can enrich the lives of a user from what they are able to do today, and new experiences that they couldn't either do or can be done much, much better."

As Kumar explained, Qualcomm has already been doing this in several apps, and I saw it in action at CES 2025.

How AI in Snapdragon X Series is aiding apps

What does AI in apps on Snapdragon X Series systems look like? Pretty cool, so far.

During a demo, Qualcomm displayed different NPU-powered software utilizing Snapdragon X Series chips. This included music mixing software djay Pro, which could allow you to mix and adjust specific elements on a track in real time using Neural Mix.

So, if you wanted to isolate a guitar riff or vocals in a tune while mixing live, it could be done in the click of a button via a Snapdragon-powered PC.

Then there was Moises Live, which allows real-time audio control in all apps. That means in YouTube and Netflix, too, so you could either drown out vocals to kick up a karaoke party or keep loud explosions to a minimum while watching a movie.

More NPU-powered experiences are set to arrive, too, including multiple apps such as Zoom, Blender, Cephable, Capture One and plenty more. It's clear Qualcomm is on the right track to deliver even more AI-powered experiences to devices via apps.

"We're already doing it significantly with the app ecosystem to bring in the developer community with apps that are very well-tuned and optimized to the Snapdragon native architecture," said Kumar.

"Essentially, you will see more and more apps, more and more experiences, leveraging our NPU strength and NPU capability, and that will define what new experiences you can achieve."

So, if app developers are key to bringing these new experiences to users, whether it be for work, education, music or anything of the like, when will we see more apps take advantage of these AI-powered tools on devices?

Well, that's up to developers, but Qualcomm aims to make it easy with its AI Hub.

Offering the right tools

Qualcomm's AI Hub is a one stop-shop for developers to optimize and deploy AI models on devices (specifically Qualcomm ones), making it easier to bring AI-powered apps onto these devices. As Kumar goes on to say, though, the company had the know-how for years to make this all work.

"AI is a new buzzword that has picked up in the last couple of years, I would say, but we have been researching and investing in AI for [around] 10 to 12 years, maybe even longer," said Kumar.

"What that gives us is a fundamental advantage. We have optimized the architecture generation after generation to make sure that it's really fine-tuned for delivering a high level of AI capability."

Qualcomm has invested heavily in terms of the toolset available for a developer to write an application across PCs (and other devices) powered by Snapdragon, allowing these apps to be made available to all far more easily, and quickly.

In Kumar's words, it "provides a developer a very seamless, frictionless environment to bring their own models or take pre-optimized models and write an application for Snapdragon PCs."

"As a developer, you can create a login, take one of the optimized models that is already available, or bring your own models onto the portal, wrap it around an app and you can choose to deploy it on any of the Snapdragon X architecture, or even smartphone for that matter.

"The app will quickly compile, it will tell you ‘okay, it actually runs on a Snapdragon X PC,’ then it will give you a runtime environment of how looks and optimization techniques as well. So we have made it very easy to develop new apps."

And all a developer needs is a browser. And, well, a device to open said browser. But you get the gist.

AI in apps are the game-changer

"There's just going to be a change everywhere."

That's a line that stuck in my head during my conversation with Kumar. Yes, there have been changes to PCs and devices in general thanks to AI-powered hardware, but it appears this is only the beginning.

There was an analogy told to me during the meeting that gave me a spark. The transition to large-scale AI devices is very much in line with the shift from 3G to 4G. Sure, there was better connectivity and faster speeds, but what could it do for the general user?

At an immediate glance, it could be seen as a faster way to browse the web, but it brought a whole new scope to developers.

With its significantly faster mobile data speeds, support for a huge scale of users simultaneously on a network and reduced latency, 4G allowed social media apps like Instagram to thrive with easy access and near-instant posting, video streaming on phones to become the norm so apps like YouTube and Netflix could be used on the go and ride-sharing services like Uber to flourish with real-time navigation.

Now, with AI on PCs, we could only be seeing the start of this kind of progression.

"You could be an artist, a video creator, in the productivity side or you could just be like someone who's just using a laptop to browse on the web. No matter who you are, I fundamentally believe the strength in the technology is so massive that it's going to completely transform the experience on every single front," Kumar states.

As for Qualcomm's further plans for Snapdragon itself, Kumar seems confident and excited about what's coming next for AI and PCs.

"We have the AI research, we have invested in the AI hardware, we have the right developer relationships and we have the right tools.," said Kumar. "The use case has been stagnant in terms of just typing, but I think the technology will lead us there on its own, and the devices will evolve as the experiences evolve."

More from Tom's Guide

• I review PCs for a living, and Apple Intelligence is already better than Windows Copilot
• 'AI laptops' hype is not what you think — PC makers won't like me revealing this secret
• Forget a mouse — Chromebooks can now be controlled with your face

Today, Qualcomm announced that it would extend support for Android devices up to eight years of software and security updates. The company said in a press release that this extension is thanks to a collaboration with Google.

It finally brings the extended support that Google already offers on its Pixel devices, introduced with the Pixel 8, which gets up to seven years. Similarly, Samsung, which has close ties with both Qualcomm and Google, also offers up to seven years of support on its devices like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.

This means that Android phones that feature a Snapdragon chipset, will get full software support including Android software and security updates. As an example, anything launched this year will have support through 2032.

What devices are eligible?

Qualcomm previously announced this longevity of support for the Snapdragon 8 Elite revealed in October of last year. This new announcement extends the service to any new Snapdragon 8 and 7-series "mobile platforms." The company does note that this support is up to the device manufacturer to ensure that their devices receive the software support.

It does make holding on to your phone longer a more attractive option and the press release states it "promotes device longevity and sustainability." The company also claims that its the longest software support its offered.

Older phones with Snapdragon do not appear to be eligible down the line for this support. The release states, "Legacy platforms cannot take advantage of the extended support. Qualcomm Technologies will continue to work with OEMs on their software support needs for legacy platforms across our product lines."

More from Tom's Guide

• I just saw how Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series outperforms Intel CPUs — and I’m blown away by the difference
• Qualcomm’s Arm license is getting cancelled and it could have a huge impact on the laptops and phones we buy
• A smarter ride awaits, as Qualcomm's Snapdragon automovie chips get better AI, new Oryon CPU