(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Qualcomm's Arm-powered laptops are already relatively affordable, but Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon expects prices to drop even more in 2025.
In an earnings call, Amon said Qualcomm is preparing to unleash more affordable products featuring Snapdragon X Elite chips, including a new wave of Copilot+ PCs slated for 2025.
"In addition to new design wins, our X Series product roadmap will expand to address PCs with retail prices as low as $700 without compromising NPU performance," Amon said. "Longer term, we believe the benefits of Snapdragon X Series platforms make it clear that the PC ecosystem has begun the transition to an Arm-compatible architecture."
He didn't specify what kinds of PC products Qualcomm plans on releasing at the $700 price level. But the company’s first wave of Snapdragon X Elite laptops launched in June, heralding a new era of Windows computing when x86 chips from Intel and AMD have long dominated the PC market.
Qualcomm already leads as a major chip vendor for Android smartphones, but now the company aims to grow across the laptop market by harnessing its Arm-based chip technology. The resulting Snapdragon X Elite chips can rival the performance of AMD and Intel mobile processors, especially in battery life and certain AI-related workloads, although Qualcomm's marketing may be overselling it.
"We still don't see an ironclad reason to run out and buy a Copilot+ PC just yet," PCMag said in its review of the Snapdragon X Elite Microsoft Surface laptop.
Even so, Amon noted that Qualcomm is "very pleased with the initial response with several models sold out at retailers and online.” The company is also preparing to expand the availability of Snapdragon X Elite laptops from 20 countries and 47 retailers to 25 countries and 60 retailers.
“We're also working closely with more than 50 global commercial customers to drive Snapdragon readiness in their respective environments,” Amon added, indicating corporate customers are eyeing the laptops as alternatives to Intel- or AMD-driven Windows notebooks.
In June, Amon also said Qualcomm is preparing to expand Snapdragon X chips to desktops and mini PCs. But one major hurdle is that x86 Windows apps can’t natively run on Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips, given the Arm architecture. That said, Microsoft has developed an emulator that can run x86 Windows apps, including games, on Qualcomm’s Arm architecture, often with adequate or fair results. For more, check out our reviews.