Your next Windows laptop is even more likely to use the same tech as your phone

Qualcomm has been taking the fight over Windows laptops to AMD and Intel for a couple of years now and has now completed its full complement of second-generation chips with the mid-range Snapdragon X2 Plus introduced at CES 2026 alongside numerous devices from Asus, Lenovo and more.

The company introduced the Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme for higher-end laptops at the tail end of last year.

The first generation Snapdragon X Plus chips debuted in September 2024, so Qualcomm certainly isn’t resting as it attempts to build more market share in what is an ultra-competitive market.

The new chips come in two variants – 56 core and 10-core. Both are capable of pushing clockspeeds up to 4GHz and both also have the 80 TOPS Hexagon neural processor from the more powerful chips and use the same third-gen Oryon CPU core. There’s also support for faster memory with a huge 152GB per second of memory bandwidth.

Qualcomm isn’t being drawn on battery life figures, but it promises “multi-day battery life”. It does reckon this is a significant performance improvement on the predecessor tech though, with 35% more CPU performance yet drawing 43% less power. The graphics promise a 29% uplift, while there’s also now support for three 4K displays, too.

The Snapdragon X2 Plus platform supports Wi-Fi 7, 5G cellular and Bluetooth 5.4.

Qualcomm also highlighted some of the work done to make apps run natively on its ARM-based chips, especially from Adobe Creative Suite, Capture One and DaVinci Resolve.

“There was a lot of talk 18 months back about apps and ecosystem compatibility,” said Kedar Kondap, head of Qualcomm’s Compute division.

“The Snapdragon app ecosystem compatibility has now reached a new level of maturity. App developers, peripheral makers and all of our partners are leaning in.

“We’re seeing significant optimizations, not just that, we’re seeing a deeper integration, and a growing recognition that Snapdragon is changing how a mobile-first PC accelerated. We have support for more than 1,800 games now.”