Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon X2 Plus Chips for Mainstream Laptops: Here Are the First Test Numbers
CES 2026: One of the giant manufacturers of mobile processors announced some information about its upcoming consumer line of processors for laptops, the Snapdragon X2 Plus. This is what it has to offer compared to the lineup of machines we pitted against each other in house.
LAS VEGAS — Thus far, there have been no laptops released that utilize the best of breed X2 Elite and X2 Extreme processors offered up by the mobile giant Qualcomm at its 2025 Snapdragon Summit last fall. Though these should make an appearance at the 2026 CES event. When that happens, however, it seems that these second-generation Elites have one mission: laptops that cost four figures.
At CES 2026, Snapdragon is launching a brand new range of next gen X2 processors, called the Snapdragon X2 Plus, which will allow for the release of more affordable laptops, according to the company. In a behind closed doors benchmarking event, the raw processing power of these processors has been showcased to us in a preview manner, much like the preview of the higher end Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme variant, as seen a few months ago. This is what the newcomer looks like:
The Two Flavors of X2 Plus
The Snapdragon X2 Plus has two different variants, one based on ten cores and another on six cores. Just like the Snapdragon X Plus, the mission of these highly integrated processors (which can, in fact, be referred to as SoCs, "systems on a chip") is to deliver laptops that cost no less than $800, while the X2 Elite and the X2 Elite Extreme versions can come in laptops that cost $1,200 and above.
Both versions have the same specified 4.0 GHz peak multi threaded processor frequency for the CPU cores, which, as with the other models in the Snapdragon X2 line, utilize the third generation of the “Oryon” CPU architecture designed by Qualcomm. The neural processing units (NPUs, also denoted “Hexagon”) available in the current product line have the same 80 trillion operations per second (TOPS) as the other models in the line announced by Qualcomm. That is substantially higher than the 45 TOPS rating in the first generation X line, and represents more operations per second on a single chip than any other line we have evaluated.
As far as most consumers are concerned, the main difference between the Snapdragon X2 Plus and the X2 Elites series above it will be the number of cores (10 or six cores in the X2 Plus, as opposed to 18 or 12 in the X2 Elites), although the 10 core model (X2P-64-100) contains 34MB of total L2 cache memory compared to 22MB in the six-core model (X2P-42-100). A second main difference will be the integrated graphic designs. While both the X2 Plus have the Adreno X2-45 integrated GPU, the 10 core version is clocked at 1.7GHz compared to 0.9GHz in the six core.
Specifications will be broken down below, for the two new X2 Plus chips, and the other three Snapdragon X2 Elite, Elite Extreme processors, that were unveiled late last year.
To learn more details about the Snapdragon X2 specifics that come into play here, we refer you to our report from the Snapdragon summit late last year that covered the X2 Elite and the X2 Elite Extreme variants of the new Snapdragon X2 lineup. Many of the specs in the new lineup are the same across the board and include support for the new Snapdragon Guardian enterprise services and protection options (if the system manufacturer chooses), support for Wi-Fi 7, and 5G WWAN connectivity if the system manufacturer chooses in the final design.
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