Don’t miss out on our latest stories. Add PCMag as a preferred source on Google.
LAHAINA, MAUI—At Snapdrgon Summit 2025, Qualcomm’s annual gathering to showcase its upcoming technologies, the chip maker showed off a host of reference designs for its new Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme chips. Laptops of several screen sizes and a detachable tablet were part of the expected mix, but the most eye-opening was a pair of desktops in form factors we’ve not seen before. Anyone for a coffee-cup heater, or a skinny, modular AIO snap-in desktop?
(Credit: John Burek)
No, Not a Mug Warmer: Meet the Saucer-Sized Snapdragon Desktop
No, the circular model isn’t going to keep your java warm. But initial impressions of the disc-shaped, super-thin desktop on display ranged from mug warmer to wireless phone charger. It’s neither, but it’s a rare desktop without sharp or rounded covers; it’s all one rounded corner. We’ve seen no shortage of cylinder PCs over the years, but imagine this like a thin slice of a model like the MSI Vortex.
(Credit: John Burek)
Whether we’ll ever see the circular model in a commercial or consumer product is up for debate. But the machine was running a Snapdragon X2 Elite series chip and powering a full-size monitor over USB-C/DisplayPort Alt Mode. It’s less than half an inch thick and just a smidge larger than a teacup saucer.
(Credit: John Burek)
Around the edges, I noted a small smattering of USB-C (one being used as the power feed) and a headphone jack. On the underside, note the ring of vents that reminds me of the underside of the Mac Mini. That brings up a key question—how to cool something so thin? But more on that in a moment.
(Credit: John Burek)
(Credit: John Burek)
Snap In, Snap Out: A Clever Snapdragon-Based Modular All-in-One
Next up was a prototype all-in-one (AIO) desktop PC with the “PC” portion built into the base. Think of this reference AIO PC as a large monitor with a bay in the stand for the desktop. Like the circular-design unit, the base PC “module” is about half an inch thick and approximately the size of a CD jewel case. The rear edge (which we were not shown) docks and engages with connectors inside the display base for a sleek, clean look.
(Credit: John Burek)
(Credit: John Burek)
You can dock and undock the PC in the base by sliding it parallel to your desk surface. That makes for an easy down-the-road upgrade without the need to replace the investment in the monitor, too. To be sure, mini-PCs mounted to the back of monitors are nothing new (Lenovo and Dell have been proponents of that kind of thing in ThinkCentre and OptiPlex designs over the years), but this is as elegant and natural a solution to this AIO conundrum as we’ve seen.
Get Our Best Stories!
Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
(Credit: John Burek)
Cool Trick: AirJet’s Silent Cooling Is These Desktops’ Slim Secret
Now, these desktop solutions are wafer-thin, so how to cool them? The answer: AirJet.
The cooling solution for the two reference models is the buzzy but under-the-radar tech from maker Frore Systems. AirJet has popped up plenty on the trade show and demo circuit, but is little known outside those circles.
AirJet has worked with Qualcomm before, and its latest collaboration is in the form of a commercial-market Wi-Fi hotspot for first responders, the AT&T Sonom Megaconnect. AirJet, in a nutshell, is a fanless means of “active” cooling in very tight spaces. AirJet comes in the form of cooling modules attached to a heat sink. Thermoelectric materials flex and create pulses inside the slim modules, pushing air through a heat sink noiselessly, with no spinning parts or fan bearings that are prone to fail over time. With this material design, AirJet also allows for cooling solutions that can be far thinner than anything with fans.
Qualcomm reps pointed out that AirJet is just one possible solution that an OEM could use with ultra-thin designs like these. The cooling solution could be traditional fans, an AirJet module, or wholly fanless. The TDP threshold of the given X2 Elite chip implementation could be scaled up or down to achieve the system designer’s design and performance goals.
These are not the first Snapdragon X-based desktop designs we’ve seen. Lenovo, for one, showed off and is now selling a ThinkCentre Neo 50Q model (we currently have it in PC Labs) with first-gen Snapdragon X, and the company has also started selling a consumer-minded IdeaCentre version.
(Credit: John Burek)
Like with most reference designs, what we’ll actually see show up on the larger market is an open question. A Snapdragon rep mentioned that Qualcomm is working with three different Taiwan OEMs on the current crop of reference models, so there’s a fair chance that some subset of this bunch will show up as actual products. In the meantime, we’ll be saving a place of honor on our desks for the disc desktop should it actually come to pass.
(Note: PCMag is attending Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit by invitation, but in keeping with our ethics policy, we have assumed all costs for travel and lodging for the conference.)
About Our Expert
John Burek
Executive Editor and PC Labs Director
Experience
I have been a technology journalist for almost 30 years and have covered just about every kind of computer gear—from the 386SX to 64-core processors—in my long tenure as an editor, a writer, and an advice columnist. For almost a quarter-century, I worked on the seminal, gigantic Computer Shopper magazine (and later, its digital counterpart), aka the phone book for PC buyers, and the nemesis of every postal delivery person. I was Computer Shopper’s editor in chief for its final nine years, after which much of its digital content was folded into PCMag.com. I also served, briefly, as the editor in chief of the well-known hard-core tech site Tom’s Hardware.
During that time, I’ve built and torn down enough desktop PCs to equip a city block’s worth of internet cafes. Under race conditions, I’ve built PCs from bare-board to bootup in under 5 minutes. I never met a screwdriver I didn’t like.
I was also a copy chief and a fact checker early in my career. (Editing and polishing technical content to make it palatable for consumer audiences is my forte.) I also worked as an editor of scholarly science books, and as an editor of “Dummies”-style computer guidebooks for Brady Books (now, BradyGames). I’m a lifetime New Yorker, a graduate of New York University’s journalism program, and a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
Read Full Bio
