Qualcomm just unveiled a surprise at CES 2026, and that’s pretty good news for consumers considering a laptop upgrade this year. Months after announcing the high-end Snapdragon X2 Elite and its Extreme variant, the company has just unveiled the mid-range silicon model Snapdragon X2 Plus.
A new lifeline for Copilot+ laptops
Qualcomm’s latest version uses the 3rd generation Oryon CPU cores, which are claimed to be 35% faster while consuming 43% less power. Simply put: more power and higher battery efficiency. Qualcomm is also increasing AI performance to 80 TOPS, almost double that of its first-generation Snapdragon X processors.
| cores | Cache | frequency | GPU | GPU frequency |
NPU GREAT |
Memory | Memory Transfer rate |
|
| Snapdragon X2 Plus 10 core | 10 | 34MB | 4.0GHz | X2-45 | 1.7GHz | 80 | LPDDR5x | 9523MT/s |
| Snapdragon X2 Plus 6-core | 6 | 22MB | 4.0GHz | X2-45 | 0.9GHz | 80 | LPDDR5x | 9523MT/s |
According to Qualcomm, the NPU onboard its latest chip can run over 50 AI workflows locally on the device. The processor is offered in two variants. The 10-core model also offers a more powerful GPU clocked at 1.7GHz, while the 6-core variant uses a slower graphics engine clocked at 0.9GHz.
The more powerful variant has six first-class cores with up to 4 GHz and four high-performance cores. The low-end version only has six main cores, achieving the same peak frequency as its more powerful sibling. Built on the 3nm process node, Snapdragon
As far as connectivity is concerned, it bundles optional 5G, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth v5.4. The first wave of laptops with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus processor will launch in the coming months with the Copilot+ logo. These laptops should ideally land in the $800 price range to challenge the MacBook Air and Apple’s upcoming low-cost laptop with an A-series mobile processor.
