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.
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.