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.
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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
CPU | Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E94100 |
GPU | Qualcomm Adreno |
RAM | 48GB DDR5X |
Storage | Up to 2TB |
Display | 16-inch, 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED, 120Hz, 16:10 aspect ratio |
Ports | 1x USB-A 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB 4.0 Gen 3 Type-C |
Wireless connectivity | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 |
Dimensions | 13.92 x 9.54 x 0.54 ~ 0.65 inches |
Weight | 2.65 pounds |
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!
CPU | Geekbench 6 single-core | Geekbench 6 multi-core |
|---|---|---|
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100 | 4074 | 23449 |
M5 (MacBook Pro 14-inch) | 4288 | 17926 |
Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 (Dell XPS 13) | 2797 | 14635 |
M4 Pro (MacBook Pro 16-inch) | 3910 | 22822 |
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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