Qualcomm reveals Snapdragon X2 Plus chip with eyes on low-cost AI laptops

The third-gen Oryon cores offer a 35% speed boost while drawing 43% less power for superior battery life.

By Nadeem Sarwar Published January 5, 2026

Qualcomm Snaprdragon X2 Plus on a laptop. — Qualcomm

Qualcomm just dropped a surprise at CES 2026 and it’s pretty good news for consumers eyeing a laptop upgrade this year. Months after announcing the high-end Snapdragon X2 Elite and its Extreme variant, the company has just revealed the mid-tier Snapdragon X2 Plus silicon.

A new lifeline for Copilot+ laptops

The latest from Qualcomm employs the 3rd Gen Oryon CPU cores, which are touted to be 35% speedier while also drawing 43% less power. Simply put, more power and higher battery efficiency. Qualcomm is also raising the AI performance to 80 TOPS, nearly double compared to its first-gen Snapdragon X processors.

	Cores	Cache	Frequency	GPU	GPU Frequency	NPU TOPS	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

Qualcomm says the NPU aboard its latest silicon can run over 50 AI workflows locally on the device. The processor will be offered in two variants. The 10-core model also offers a beefier GPU clocked at 1.7GHz, while the 6-core variant picks a slower graphics engine ticking at 0.9GHz.

The beefier variant packs six prime cores going up to 4GHz and four performance cores. The low-end version only has six prime cores, touching the same peak frequency as its more powerful sibling. Fabricated on the 3nm process node, the Snapdragon X2 Plus silicon can handle 4K panels with up to 144Hz refresh rate and can also drive three panels at 4K resolution.

Recommended Videos

On the connectivity front, it bundles optional 5G, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth v5.4. The first wave of laptops powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus processor will land in the coming months bearing the Copilot+ badge. These laptops should ideally land in the $800 price bracket to challenge the MacBook Air and Apple’s upcoming low-cost laptop with a mobile-grade A-series processor.

Managing Editor

Nadeem is the Managing Editor at Digital Trends.

Topics

Computing

Apple made Liquid Glass adjustable, which says plenty about Liquid Glass

The new slider is useful, welcome, and mildly hilarious after a year of Apple acting like transparent everything was the obvious future.

Text, Document, Business Card

Apple’s big glassy software future now comes with a way to make it less glassy. In iOS 27, users can adjust the translucency of the Liquid Glass effect, while macOS Golden Gate adds its own Liquid Glass controls under System Settings.

Liquid Glass is still alive across Apple’s platforms, still shimmering through menus and panels, still doing the elegant UI trick Apple clearly likes. The big visual bet has already earned a dimmer switch. After a year of treating translucency like the obvious next step, WWDC’s most revealing design update may be the one that lets people dial it back.

Computing

Windows 11 just fixed one of Search’s dumbest limitations, and you’ll wonder how you lived without it

One less character, one less annoyance every time you search your PC.

Person sitting and using a Windows Surface computer with Windows 11.

If you have ever typed two letters into the Windows 11 search box, paused, and watched nothing useful happen until you added more characters, you already know exactly why this Windows 11 update matters.

Microsoft's June 2026 Patch Tuesday update, part of a release Windows Latest calls the biggest of the year (via Windows Latest), quietly fixes that. Windows Search can now find and prioritize files with as few as two characters, down from the old three-character minimum.

Computing

Brazil’s secret World Cup weapon taught the team when to ignore it

The data said he wasn't running enough. The footage said he was always in the “perfect tactical position.”

Soccer ball in net

Brazil has more World Cup titles than anyone, five of them to be precise, but after going through five straight tournaments without adding to that count, the team is leaning hard on data this time.

Every player wears a sensor-packed "smart vest" tracking field position (via GPS), heart rate, and a stat called "player load," the same kind of numbers that your Whoop band or Apple Watch brags about, but tuned specifically for the sport.