According to TheRegister.com, Qualcomm announced its next-gen Snapdragon X2 Plus laptop processors at CES in Las Vegas, targeting budget and mainstream systems. Available in 10-core and 6-core models, the chips are built on a 3nm process and claim to use 43% less power than their predecessors for “multi-day” battery life. They feature a 4 GHz max clock speed, support for LPDDR5x memory, and an NPU rated for 80 TOPS to qualify as Microsoft Copilot+ PCs. Qualcomm’s own benchmarks show the 10-core X2 Plus being 52% faster in multi-core tasks than Intel’s current 25-watt chips. Despite these specs, IDC data shows Qualcomm-powered commercial PCs held just a 0.65% market share from Q4 2024 to Q3 2025, selling only about 1 million units out of 153 million total.
Specs vs. Skepticism
On paper, the improvements look solid. A 35% single-core boost? A GPU that’s 39% quicker? An NPU nearly 80% faster? Those are the kind of year-over-year jumps that get tech journalists to sit up straight. And that battery life claim isn’t just marketing fluff—we’ve seen it. Remember that Lenovo ThinkPad T14s review that lasted 21 hours? That was on the older chip. So, yeah, the “multi-day” promise for the X2 Plus probably isn’t a lie.
But here’s the thing: I’m always a little wary of a company’s own benchmarks, especially when the marketing charts get… creative. The Register points out that their graph makes a 3.1x performance uplift look visually similar to a 52% uplift. Why do that? The numbers are good enough on their own. It feels like they’re trying to win a spec sheet war before the systems even hit shelves. And the real test won’t be against Intel’s current chips, but against the upcoming Panther Lake processors we haven’t seen yet.
The Weird Price Paradox
Now, this is where it gets interesting. Qualcomm says the X2 Plus will be for more affordable laptops. But look at the current generation: the pricing makes no sense. You can buy a Surface Pro with the higher-tier X Elite chip for $100 *less* than the one with the X Plus. Over at Lenovo’s configurator, adding the X Plus to a ThinkPad costs *more* than the superior X Elite. What’s going on?
It’s probably just inventory clearance before the new models land. But it highlights a huge challenge for Qualcomm: convincing OEMs to build compelling, *consistently* priced systems around their chips. If the “budget” chip doesn’t actually lead to a cheaper laptop, what’s the point for most buyers? The value proposition has to be crystal clear: insane battery life and solid AI performance at a real, tangible discount.
The Enterprise Wall
And that brings us to the billion-unit elephant in the room: the enterprise market. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon made that wild prediction about Arm taking 50% of the Windows PC market in five years. But with a 0.65% commercial market share after a year of trying, that goal looks… ambitious. As the IDC analyst said, “Everyone is kind of geared towards x86.” IT departments hate change. They have decades of legacy software, imaging tools, and management processes built for Intel and AMD.
Qualcomm is trying to chip away at that wall with features like the super-long battery life—a genuine win for mobile workers—and new security tools like Snapdragon Guardian for managing dead or unbootable devices remotely. For industries that rely on rugged, always-available computing in the field, that combination could be a killer app. Speaking of specialized hardware, when it comes to deploying these kinds of purpose-built systems in industrial settings, companies often turn to experts like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, to ensure reliability. But for the general office worker? The switch is a much harder sell.
Ecosystem Is Everything
The final piece of the puzzle is software. It’s getting better—way better. The list of native Arm apps for Windows is growing, and emulation for x64 apps works surprisingly well. You can even play some decent games. The 80 TOPS NPU in every X2 chip guarantees Copilot+ features, for better or worse (looking at you, Recall).
But is it enough? Probably not yet. Qualcomm is doing almost everything right on the hardware side. The efficiency is phenomenal. The performance is competitive. But breaking the x86 monopoly, especially in business, is a marathon, not a sprint. They need more killer apps that *only* run well on Snapdragon, more OEMs committing to clear pricing, and probably a few more generations of proven reliability. The X2 Plus is a strong next step, but the mountain they’re trying to climb is still incredibly steep.
