Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 PCs reach retail, ASUS launches X2 Elite Extreme laptop with 48GB memory at $1,599
Posted by -protonsandneutrons-@reddit | hardware | View on Reddit | 95 comments
Lucky_Elderberry8008@reddit
I was looking at the a16 today and saw it increase from 1599 to 1699. Shows how good this price is. I just jumped and bought at 1699. Really excited for this laptop. Wish samsung released edge 6 with the x2 elite extreme already, but cant beat this price and I didnt want to wait and miss out on this amazing deal. Only major thing missing on this laptop is the haptic track pad. Anyone else jump on this?
basedIITian@reddit
The Galaxy Book Edge 6 listing just popped up randomly on a random website, so it is coming soon.
Lucky_Elderberry8008@reddit
Where did you see this?
basedIITian@reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/snapdragon/s/SjRKQUma9p
Lucky_Elderberry8008@reddit
Thanks appreciate it! No details if they will have one with elite extreme. I guess we can just hope.
basedIITian@reddit
Yeah. Correct.
horatiobanz@reddit
See if you can fold your screen in half when it arrives:
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fb8zd7m9pxwtg1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dd65caeac860d808a2d5a7cb70a9e9514871240c6
TigerMoskito@reddit
ARM would be dominating laptop and desktop if it weren't for their closed drivers and no bios policy, unfortunately this pc despite its quality will have a lower lifespan then any other laptop, because like android smartphones, the moment microsoft will drop the support its as good as dead
GHz-Man@reddit
ARM isn't dominating Windows because they currently have zero desktop chips, and because most consumers are unaware of the difference.
When you shop for a new laptop and you're given the choice of an Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and soon Nvidia chip as well, what percentage of customers do you think understands the difference between those? It's too much confusion for most customers.
Try explaining the difference between those 4 chips to your parents. Do you think they'd understand?
Most people just pick the company they've probably heard of more (Intel).
I go on Lenovo's website and it's just a confusing mess of like 50 different nearly identical laptop models.
BandeFromMars@reddit
I think people understand Nvidia = gaming and Intel/AMD = familiarity. You'd be hard pressed to find an actual consumer who knows even a little about Qualcomm.
GHz-Man@reddit
They're all similar enough most people outside of this sub wouldn't really understand the differences well enough.
I think the poor sales just comes down to confusion.
The same thing would've happened if Apple gave customers the choice of a Mac with ARM or one with Intel.
Instead of that, they just transitioned everything 100% to ARM.
BandeFromMars@reddit
If you stripped the brand off of the chips sure, that would be confusing. But the branding does make a difference, and currently Qualcomm's brand in the PC space is basically worth nothing so nobody is considering it.
GHz-Man@reddit
But consumers do notice things like speed and battery life, which tends to be dramatically different between x86 and ARM.
The ARM Macs are dramatically faster than the Intel Macs were, and have double the battery life.
I just don't think Lenovo and other OEMs are really doing a good job explaining the differences or marketing ARM at all.
Their website is a confusing mess of 50 different laptops that look more or less the same.
BandeFromMars@reddit
To am extent yes, but the differences are either not that big or the "speed" balances out with app compatibility issues and emulation.
The intel macs are particularly funny because Apple half assed their designs, but it was also interesting worst time for chips.
They really aren't, but I just don't see a way for them to clearly market the differences when there are these little caveats and other things that are hard to explain to a consumer. Most windows oems do indeed have a needlessly complicated lineup.
GHz-Man@reddit
Apple's M3 Ultra (which is more than 1 year old now) outperforms the Core Ultra 9 285K and Ryzen 9 9950X, while using a fraction of the power.
I'd say that's a pretty big difference.
Same thing with laptops, where battery life is the most important thing.
Microsoft said recently 90% of software running on ARM Windows is native now.
How so? Their current designs aren't really any different, and they work great with their own chips.
The issue was that Intel/AMD's chips ran way too hot for Apple's designs. No one wants a 1 inch thick laptop with a fan blowing like a jet engine lol
I don't know why they need 3 (soon to be 4) CPU choices in the first place.
BandeFromMars@reddit
I meant more Qualcomm's implementation of Arm vs x86.
They can claim anything but they'd be wrong. Maybe 90% of software they deem important is native but 90% of software is definitely not
Intel macbooks almost consistently ran hotter and throttled harder than their competitors at the time. Apple could have done something about this but didn't. In the end it didn't matter but they were definitely half assed. There were also plenty of windows laptops at the time that performed better and we're 1in thick.
They don't probably, if OEMs were to consolidate behind just 3, I don't see this being good for Qualcomm. We're already seeing this with the number of X2 launch chassis being notably less than X1.
GHz-Man@reddit
The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme also benchmarks faster than the Core Ultra 9 285K and Ryzen 9 9950X.
Yeah, they could've made their laptops thicker, heavier, and have a louder fan.
Intel also could've made cooler lower-power chips, but they didn't lol
Is it really Apple's fault that their chips were so hot and power-hungry?
Why not pick one? Customers will continue to be confused if the OEMs continue to not clearly explain the differences between them.
My dad is shopping for a new Lenovo laptop right now and has no idea which model to pick with like 50 different options.
Steve Jobs solved this problem in 1998... Just make 4 computers: Consumer laptop, consumer desktop, pro laptop, pro desktop.
Apple has only slightly expanded that since then, with the Mac mini and MacBook Neo.
Various-Inside-4064@reddit
I do not think the reason apple fast is because its architecture is ARM.
Recently x86 is also being made efficient to some degree tho still fail to compete with ARM. but ARM historically being designed for smartphones where efficiency matter more while x86 historically did not focused on efficinecy!
But intel AMD has to up their game otherwise they might get replaced in future in laptops!
the_dude_that_faps@reddit
What's the state of Qualcomm Linux compatibility? I can't stand windows anymore. My current laptop just runs on Linux without quirks with great battery life even if it has a discrete GPU.
I want better battery life as long as I can keep linux
Worldly_Topic@reddit
Apparently the X2 chips will support ACPI tables on Linux (atleast according to an QCOM eng I saw in Linkedin) so the experience should be much smoother than having to upstream and manage individual DTBs for each and every Laptop in upstream kernel.
the_dude_that_faps@reddit
Honestly, one of the greatest things of PC is the standardization of bringing up the system. Makes supporting software that much less of a whack job like what happens with arm SBCs.
DerpSenpai@reddit
The ARM PC spec was only ratified in 2024 so yeah it will take a while but ARM in the end will be just like x86
the_dude_that_faps@reddit
Wait, there's a spec? I had no idea!
yreun@reddit
Could you share the source of the ACPI statement?
Because currently their CRD got a DTB developed for and upstreamed:
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260122-upstream_v3_glymur_introduction-v6-0-245f408ed82a@oss.qualcomm.com/
Worldly_Topic@reddit
From https://www.semiaccurate.com/2025/11/28/a-deep-dive-into-the-qualcomm-snapdragon-x2-elite-workings/
It's still not sure if these ACPI tables are good enough for Linux or whether they contain shitty Windows-isms making it unusable for Linux.
Also X2 will support booting Linux in EL2 so KVM virtualization can work now without having to use stuff like slbounce.
yreun@reddit
I mean it could, but considering the CRD still uses a DTB I don't think it'll be complete. Rob Clark who was hired by Qualcomm to work on open source multi media stuff has said "per-device DTS is currently unavoidable" but that it will likely change in the future:
https://www.phoronix.com/forums/forum/software/desktop-linux/1599376-fedora-44-could-work-nicely-out-of-the-box-on-snapdragon-powered-windows-arm-laptops/page2#post1599593
Something I have heard though is that the battery level works now without firmware files, so that's a step forward.
EL2 we'll see, I feel like it's largely a firmware issue on the OEM's or BIOS maker side. Probably lack of experience in doing anything other than Windows.
The X Elite CRDs have "DT w/EL2 (Linux w/KBM)" as an option in their bootloader, at least the ones when they were first unveiled in 2023. Unsure why it didn't make it to consumer devices.
https://nitter.net/never_released/status/1792698171833102638
Worldly_Topic@reddit
From that same link
So idk fingers crossed.
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7423850508848738304?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A7423850508848738304%2C7423907047152357376%29&dashCommentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Afsd_comment%3A%287423907047152357376%2Curn%3Ali%3Aactivity%3A7423850508848738304%29
That's a Senior Director of Engineering at Qaulcommm saying slbounce won't be required for future X Elite devices. I guess that means native EL2 boot for Linux.
Maybe OEMs don't see the point of having such an option for consumers. After all Linux users are still a minority.
yreun@reddit
I think what Rob Clark's statement means is that it will take until the X3 or X4 for a solution to the per-device DTB issue to arise.
Also that statement from the Senior Director of Engineering is interesting. I did not realize it but yeah it seems that EL2 does run on the X2 Elite. I wonder if it'll be up to OEMs to enable it.
https://lore.kernel.org/all/20260313120814.1312410-1-sibi.sankar@oss.qualcomm.com/
In some reviews of the X2 Elite they mention that Qualcomm will now handle the driver updates which implies they're taking away control from OEMs a little bit so maybe they'll handle more of the firmware this time around as well.
vlakreeh@reddit
If that's true I'm buying one of these immediately, can't wait to see how this shakes out.
yreun@reddit
Qualcomm upstreams a lot of drivers corresponding to the SoC with a few exceptions like USB4 still missing. Battery performance is still not as good as on Windows, but I think power management is just something a disadvantage Linux has depending on OEMs due to Embedded Controller behavior?
The story will likely be similar as it was with the X1, devices needing to have device trees developed and then additional tweaks for stuff like the hardware decoders and cameras, but I feel like these things should come much faster now that people have more experience and also because Qualcomm has hired known names in the community to work on improving Linux support.
the_dude_that_faps@reddit
Crossing my fingers. My current workhorse is an old Asus Rog Zen 3 laptop but it has tons of memory, tons of storage and a good 4-6 hours of battery on Linux which is much better than what I got on Windows in this beast. I still want more battery though, but I also have 64 GB of ram and that 48 GB offer with good battery and good single-core performance is very enticing.
Standard-Potential-6@reddit
Quite bad, and no signs of improvement.
https://github.com/qualcomm/fastrpc/issues/193#issuecomment-4142650576
Linkarlos_95@reddit
Bootloader? That's dangerous, you can kill somebody with that
doxypoxy@reddit
It's barely an issue for most users.
wintrmt3@reddit
Yeah, most users have the much more serious problem of their software not having an ARM version, linux distros have pretty good ARM support in comparison once they are able to boot.
the_dude_that_faps@reddit
What a weird thing to say? I didn't claim to speak for most users. I'm asking for my own personal use case.
ycnz@reddit
We're getting pretty acceptable performance (4+ hours) out of the Strix Point Lenovos. The Intel Lunar Lake ones are very much beta-level stability, and can only do 32GB.
alabasterskim@reddit
I heard they're working on very soon having it easy to set up Fedora. I think it should be in time for Fedora 45. They tried to do it sooner but there was some technical difficulties with the vc (not the pull itself).
the_dude_that_faps@reddit
Ah cool. That would be awesome.
Auautheawesome@reddit
Last I read non-existent
txdv@reddit
yeah, interesting with linux but last snapdragon I waited for linux to land took 4years so im not holding my breath
Uptons_BJs@reddit
Holy shit, no freaking way. Is this really the final price?
I checked best buy, and the machine has 48gb ram and 1tb ssd for only $1599?
I'm genuinely, genuinely shocked you can get this much ram at this price. Anyone know if Windows on arm is good at inference?
alabasterskim@reddit
It's insane value, but likely limited time. Asus's own site shows the same model for $2000.
basedIITian@reddit
No, that's the highest SKU (X2-96) model. The X2-94 model was priced at 1600, now is now increased to 1700.
alabasterskim@reddit
Ah I see. And another difference - it comes with Windows 11 Pro.
dreamingawake09@reddit
Yeah plus this model isn't the highest spec for the X2EE. This model is the step below(X2E-94-100). Really annoying naming scheme tbh.
alabasterskim@reddit
The margin in performance between the two is not likely to be huge, prob less than 5%. And ppw will def be down.
horatiobanz@reddit
Yes and you get this level of build quality you get in a $2000 laptop:
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpreview.redd.it%2Fb8zd7m9pxwtg1.jpg%3Fwidth%3D960%26crop%3Dsmart%26auto%3Dwebp%26s%3Dd65caeac860d808a2d5a7cb70a9e9514871240c6
workend@reddit
Are those local models even worth running at this price point? I’m curious what your use case is
sitefall@reddit
I don't really understand why any of these unified memory systems are being marketed as AI this and AI that. They are slow AF compared to a GPU, borderline unusable to me.
Any image model you would want to use is going to have a lot of issues and run fairly slow when you can do pretty high res images now on even an 8gb gpu just fine. You can forget about video, if it works, it takes ages and 48gb unified isn't quite enough to do anything meaningful with.
That basically leaves LLMs which are slow. Like go cook breakfast waiting for it to just read the system prompt slow, give it your command and then you mine as well tab over to youtube for a while slow, all while hogging all your ram so forget about doing any parallel work at the same time.
I have 96gb vram and still haven't found any reasonably good local models that do more than very basic things. I think people buy these things thinking they're going to save so much time and money vibe coding their next MVP so the can spend more time reading grindculture linkedin articles and posting hackernews comments, and don't exactly realize most of the demonstrations from clawdbot/openbot are using an API.
I have a pro 6000 blackwell and find local LLM's not very exciting even at that level. The image/video gen stuff is great though. Also have a Strix Halo system with unified memory that is just not very useful to me either. If I am wrong or missing something please explain it to me.
hollow_bridge@reddit
yeah it's a good price point and plenty of decent models will fit. I'm not impressed by any local coding models, but for anything else its pretty solid.
tuhdo@reddit
Yes, with the right setup. For example, you use a cloud model for planning into workable tasks to the point that the small local models can follow reliably.
workend@reddit
Seems like a good way to save on output tokens, I would have to work out at what point it would be worthwhile to go with that kind of setup vs delegating to a smaller cloud models like nano or mini
Uptons_BJs@reddit
Some of the more recent models aren't bad for things like translation or some light coding.
I'm personally not a local LLM guy, but I can see someone who uses Gemma 4 31B or something along those lines grabbing a device like this.
Vb_33@reddit
Freedom, privacy, lewds.
Alive_Wedding@reddit
Bug if true, but this is likely a “RTX 5090 for $1999 situation here”.
DerpSenpai@reddit
The tools run native, it's up to the hardware only. The NPU is very efficient at it but GPU is faster, on Android I get more tokens/s on Apple GPU than on Adreno but this is usable with Gemma 4 31B AFAIK
Vb_33@reddit
Adrenos got a ways to go. Will be interesting to see where N1X lands.
NoHoesInMyDMs@reddit
Why is the power button not top right, they put the delete button top right and the power button to the left of that 🙃🔫
marmarama@reddit
Because you're less likely to hit the power button by mistake and accidentally trigger a standby or shutdown.
On PC laptop keyboards, the Del key is, by convention, almost always in the top right hand corner. If you use the Del key regularly, you use it a lot more than you do the power button. It takes a while to retain your muscle memory to not reach for the top right key.
My HP has exactly the same layout.
VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit
For most of the history of laptop computers, the power button wasn't a key on the keyboard at all. It was a microswitch pushbutton outside the keyboard, typically in the top right.
i5-2520M@reddit
Also HP has a timeout on the power key, so if you press it by mistake quickly literally nothing happens. I have only triggered it once by accident.
VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit
Sounds like you'd have to be very careful not to hold it for 4 seconds.
Vb_33@reddit
Still can't believe they got rid of the gun emoji because guns are mean
Exist50@reddit
And reversed the direction!
alabasterskim@reddit
Still the most America has done for gun control in the last 20 years.
Paed0philic_Jyu@reddit
Worthless toys these are. Qualcomm has 0 presence on LVFS.
ConsistentCat4353@reddit
Maybe a naive question, but 0 presence in LVFS influence only potential Linux customers. Windows customers see no problem, or?
Paed0philic_Jyu@reddit
So what? I laid out a potential scenario and my situation where these are useless. Just because Linux has single-digit market share doesn't mean its invalid.
Besides, Asus also has zero presence in LVFS. They have more firmware updates for their GB10 boxes than any laptops - including x86 and older Snapdragon Elite systems.
LAwLzaWU1A@reddit
But if you are going to broadly call something "worthless" it is quite strange to base that on your personal use case, especially if it's quite niche.
Would you say a car is worthless because you personally might not need one?
Paed0philic_Jyu@reddit
A computer that uses a CPU architecture whose maker cannot provide support for the OS that the customer wants to use IS worthless.
996forever@reddit
The customer in question = Redditor
Paed0philic_Jyu@reddit
Redditors also like to think that the world revolves around people like them wanting toys instead of computers.
996forever@reddit
They definitely do, yes. That’s why r/hardware has turned into PCMR 2.0. But this is an ultrabook for general public home/client users so the relevant OSes in this segment are windows and macOS and most of their use case involves web based apps and maybe Microsoft office.
Paed0philic_Jyu@reddit
General public also has access to the myriad beginner-friendly Linux distributions as well, and not rely solely on an OS whose parent company has deep integration with the surveillance state and also provides services to terrorist entities.
ConsistentCat4353@reddit
I was sincerely asking, not fighting. As I am not involved in it that much. Persinally I use linux also. But am curious how things work. So Asus is not present in lvfs at all, what influences linux and not windows?
Paed0philic_Jyu@reddit
Basically LVFS provides a seamless way for vendors to update firmware on the major Linux distributions.
The only vendors which have proper presence on LVFS are Dell, HP and Lenovo. Among them, Dell's coverage is the best.
My 5-year-old Dell laptop still receives firmware updates. The latest one available for Windows is dated 13th February 2026. The current one I have - a version older which has been pushed to LVFS - was available in December 2025.
Taiwanese vendors like Asus have very limited presence on LVFS.
ConsistentCat4353@reddit
Thanks
coolcosmos@reddit
It's sad.
Crap-_@reddit
Victim to even the base model m5 lol. Absolute idiots who would buy these, when panther lake and apple silicon exist which wipes the floor with this.
Worldly_Topic@reddit
Lol who you kidding
Geddagod@reddit
Bro tried to sneak PTL in there lmao
queerintech@reddit
I'd consider a small mini pc but not a laptop. It would be compelling for home lab and media pc stuff.
turtleship_2006@reddit
Why not a laptop?
People who need the absolute most performance are probably using PCs, but you get much better battery life
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
I'm hopeful to see more mini PCs this time, but it seems to be a much smaller market, unfortunately.
smarlitos_@reddit
Wow way more memory than MacBooks
Emotional_Bicycle361@reddit
Npu is really good for inference. It’s got the best NPU.
Malygos_Spellweaver@reddit
Uh, it's actually pretty decent and almost tempts me to get one instead of Intel's solution, but the GPU performance is still disappointing + no Linux support.
lintstah1337@reddit
DOA.
Panther Lake demolishes this sad waste of sand.
Worldly_Topic@reddit
Did you even read the article ?
basedIITian@reddit
The replies on this thread are as expected.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
Product page for the 16": ASUS Zenbook A16 (UX3607) | Ultra- Lightweight Copilot+ PC; Zenbook A16 (X2E94100) has up to a 65W TDP.
Product page for the 14" ASUS Zenbook A14 (UX3407) | Ultra- Lightweight Copilot+ PC; Zenbook A14 (X2E88100) has up to a 35W TDP.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
Notebookcheck's testing shows these numbers are about right:
Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme Analysis, Benchmarks & Efficiency - Serious rival for Apple and a problem for AMD & Intel - NotebookCheck.net Reviews
Aggressive_Piece919@reddit
Wow $1600 for a 48gb paperweight. 😆
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