Thursday, August 1st 2024
Qualcomm to Offer Snapdragon X-Powered PCs for $700 in 2025
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has announced plans to introduce Snapdragon X-powered PCs at a groundbreaking price point of $700 by next year. This revelation, made during the company's recent third-quarter earnings call, signals a significant shift in the accessibility of high-performance Arm-based computers. Currently, the most affordable Snapdragon X laptops on the market, such as the Microsoft Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, retail for $999. The $700 price tag prospect represents a substantial reduction, potentially opening up the technology to a broader consumer base. The only "affordable" Snapdragon X-based PC is the Snapdragon Dev Kit, with a price point of $899. However, the entire laptop solution is still more expensive. Mr. Amon emphasized that despite the lower cost of the potential $700 units, these upcoming devices will maintain neural processing unit (NPU) performance. This commitment suggests that Qualcomm is confident in its ability to optimize costs without sacrificing the advanced capabilities that have made Snapdragon X chips appealing to power users and developers alike.
While specific details about the hardware configurations remain undisclosed, it is interesting to see what steps Qualcomm will take to deliver on this promise. If the company can provide 8-core chips with 16 GB of RAM to the masses for $700, the industry would likely react very well, especially students who require decent computing capabilities on the go, if the $700 PC ends up being a laptop. The announcement also hinted at an expansion of Qualcomm-powered computers, with new models expected to debut at the upcoming IFA tech conference. These additions will likely bolster the selection of Microsoft Copilot+ PCs, further integrating AI capabilities into everyday computing experiences. The CEO also noted, "We expect PC to be the next biggest driver of diversification for the company," with some Snapdragon X PC already being sold out. The demand appears to be strong, and undercutting competition on pricing is an ideal way to get as many customers on board as possible.
Source:
The Verge
While specific details about the hardware configurations remain undisclosed, it is interesting to see what steps Qualcomm will take to deliver on this promise. If the company can provide 8-core chips with 16 GB of RAM to the masses for $700, the industry would likely react very well, especially students who require decent computing capabilities on the go, if the $700 PC ends up being a laptop. The announcement also hinted at an expansion of Qualcomm-powered computers, with new models expected to debut at the upcoming IFA tech conference. These additions will likely bolster the selection of Microsoft Copilot+ PCs, further integrating AI capabilities into everyday computing experiences. The CEO also noted, "We expect PC to be the next biggest driver of diversification for the company," with some Snapdragon X PC already being sold out. The demand appears to be strong, and undercutting competition on pricing is an ideal way to get as many customers on board as possible.
18 Comments on Qualcomm to Offer Snapdragon X-Powered PCs for $700 in 2025
Qualcomm, this isn't Android, you have to put some minimum effort here.
The race to the bottom, that is, cause they gonna have to cut some corners somewhere to get to that $700 price point, and my guess would be bottom-barrel mickey-mouse ssd's, ram & mobo's, plus a very limited number/type of ports :(
"Cheap is as cheap does" - Forest....Forest Gump (well, sorta)
And since for 99% of consumers seeking a thin and light laptop with great battery life to do casual things like, internet browsing, opening a word doc, reading emails and watching youtube and tiktok videos, even a chip with the performance of a 15 years old Core2Quad is more than enough, Qualcomm will have a very easy task to market these Snapdragons. No matter how much slower they might be, compared to AMD's and Intel's chips.Really cheaper ARM based laptops will flood the market when Mediatek gets in the game.
you can get some pretty nice ram and nand for that kind of money, especially since it's an arm soc that doesn't require all that much motherboard wise as practically everything is on chip
The Snapdragon Dev Kit, with a price point of $899.
While a brand new Apple Mac mini with M2 is below 500$ on Amazon. Of the shelf rock stable proven platform with ironed out software.
How are these Qualcomm machines not released for sub 500$ or given away for free to real developers to improve the platform?!
It seems like a no brainer that you want developers to have these machines especially when launching the platform.
Im guessing lower end SKUs will provide even longer battery life even if the performance is less.
Yeah next year we have Mediatek and Nvidia bringing ARM SoC's to the game. Qualcomm only has a short time to gouge. In 2026 AMD enters the fray with their ARM hybrid cpu. Intel will be the only one's ignoring this area.
A mac mini with similar specs (32GB RAM / 512 SSD) costs $1700.
RAM is not an equivalent metric between operating systems. 8GB is very different if we talk about Android, Windows 11, Windows 7, Windows XP, macOS, iOS, iPadOS and so on.
The Mac mini in question is an extremely capable machine and can be used for development for macOS, iOS, iPadOS as well as many software stacks.
Compilation speeds on apple silicon are fantastic. Just check some benchmarks.