Could 2026 finally be the year you ditch that laptop lead from your travel bag? Qualcomm has just pulled back the curtain on Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and Snapdragon X2 Elite, new top-tier chipsets that aim to up the oomph while also boosting battery life for multiple days of use between trips to the charging socket.
Both new chips are built on the same 3nm architecture as the last-gen Snapdragon X Elite, which shook up the laptop world with MacBook-rivalling efficiency last year. Only now everything has been uprated across CPU, GPU and AI-boosting NPU to give AMD, Intel and even Apple cause for concern.
The Oryon CPU has now hit its third iteration, with up to 18 cores depending on the model. It’s the first ARM-compatible chip to hit the 5.0GHz mark, which Qualcomm says is enough to deliver up to 75% more grunt than AMD and Intel’s equivalents at the same power draw. It needs up to 43% less power overall, which the firm reckons will translate into ‘multi-day’ battery life.
Performance gains go even further on the GPU side, with a massive 2.3x performance per watt over the last-gen version. Qualcomm isn’t talking exact numbers just yet, so there’s no word if that translates to double the frame rate in games, but it bodes well for an area that wasn’t exactly a Snapdragon strong point on the first X Elite generation.
Last year’s Hexagon NPU could crack 45 TOPS for AI-based jobs, but the new generation now pushes out 80 – that’s as good as it gets from an ultraportable laptop right now, and could be a big reason for picking up a Snapdragon-powered laptop as AI gets integrated into more apps.
Other top line upgrades include a new FastConnect 7800 modem with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 LE connectivity.
The first Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and X2 Elite-powered laptops should start arriving from big-name brands as early as January next year. Qualcomm also showed off a bunch of different form factors at its Snapdragon Summit event, hinting convertibles, 2-in-1s, all-in-one desktop PCs and mini PCs could also be on the way too.
Thanks to Snapdragon for inviting me to be their guest at Snapdragon Summit. All experiences were hosted but no additional compensation was received.
