Qualcomm's new Snapdragon C chip paves the way for $300 Windows laptops
Posted by -protonsandneutrons-@reddit | hardware | View on Reddit | 96 comments
Posted by -protonsandneutrons-@reddit | hardware | View on Reddit | 96 comments
Framed-Photo@reddit
Bit of a pipe dream, but a genuine macbook neo competitor with some arm chip that can run Linux would be perfect for me. Qualcomm isn't being exactly Linux friendly right now though...
ibeerianhamhock@reddit
I mean their drivers suck generally but especially on Linux
Framed-Photo@reddit
They really aren't that bad anymore on Linux.
Strazdas1@reddit
They are horrendous on linux, barely functional.
Framed-Photo@reddit
Objectively not true in 2026.
FrivolousMe@reddit
Have you considered that you're genuinely in the minority on this one
Framed-Photo@reddit
I've considered that a lot of people have no idea what they're talking about, and just parrot 10 year old talking points rather than actually using things and reading documentation.
Anyone saying Nvidia drivers are bad on Linux in 2026 has no idea what they're talking about, plain and simple.
Sol33t303@reddit
Counterpoint: NVIDIA drivers have gotten worse. Sure, you get no more kernel breakages like you used to. But overall integration with the ecosystem took a large dip over the past 10 years, pre Wayland days NVIDIA was basically fine if you could handle occasionally rebooting into a backup kernel.
But NVIDIA had that decade long anti-watland spat, is missing support from multiple utilities like the ACO shader compiler, and more recently has had that 20% performance drop on DX12.
NVIDIA have failed to keep up with the Linux landscape with other drivers out pacing it, they were arguably the best 10-15 years ago, but they are the worst now.
Framed-Photo@reddit
I don't think you realize how horrible things were 10+ years ago if you think the Nvidia experience has gotten worse on Linux in 2026. It is objectively a VASTLY improved experience today than it used to be, and is largely fine for 99% of people for every day use. That was not the case in the past.
Being worse than AMD's gold standard open source drivers does not mean Nvidias drivers are bad.
Sol33t303@reddit
Back in 2016 when I got my 1080 ti, I didn't need to worry about shader compilation, or directx 12 performance, or Wayland issues.
But in the past 10 years, those have become things that people need to worry about, and NVIDIA has largely failed to address those shortcomings in their drivers (GBM support is a very recent thing).
I never said anything about AMD drivers.
Framed-Photo@reddit
You're really looking back on this with rose tinted glasses. You didn't need to worry about a lot of issues because the drivers flat out didn't support a lot of things. 1080ti does not have full DX12 support (dx12 only released in 2014 lol), games weren't being made with engines that required or supported shader compilation, so you would have just gotten stutters, and wayland didn't exist in any consumer-ready state so you couldn't get VRR, proper multimonitor support, proper 4k support, etc.
And by the way, part of my whole thing here is that Nvidia DOES now support these things very well as of 2026, when it wasn't the case before. Wayland shouldn't be a major issue for you anymore on Nvidia hardware in 2026, for example.
You can still use x11 if you don't like wayland, or play games that aren't dx12 or let you pre-compile shaders.
No, you said, "NVIDIA have failed to keep up with the Linux landscape with other drivers out pacing it" which can only either mean Intel or AMD, and I'm assuming you're not talking about Intel lol.
VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit
AIUI, it kind of depends on what you care about. Hybrid graphics with an Nvidia dGPU SUCKED back then, but the "desktop workstation with monitors plugged into video card" use-case was very reliable.
Saranhai@reddit
Lmao. Good luck running Linux on a Snapdragon anything chip
Idkwatnam@reddit
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the one Valve is using for the Steam Frame which runs SteamOS based on Arch Linux?
Strazdas1@reddit
For which Valve had to write its own hardware drivers because Qualcomm wouldn’t?
Saranhai@reddit
Okay and? I suppose I should’ve been more specific 🙄 Snapdragon X and C chips lol
Special-Abrocoma575@reddit
Pretty sure Purwa (X (Plus) and Hamoa (X Elite and some X Plus) are pretty well-supported in mainline, and Glymur (X2 Elite) is getting there. Not sure about the C-series chips, but they'll probably get decent support. You just need to have (or write) a device tree for your device, which isn't too bad
VenditatioDelendaEst@reddit
Anything that requires a device tree not provided by the factory installed bootloader is unsupported.
DerpSenpai@reddit
I will bet my left nut that the C series chips is based on an old phone chip
Special-Abrocoma575@reddit
I saw someone say it was based on SM7325, which would make sense, as that already has pretty good mainline support
Special-Abrocoma575@reddit
But wait, SC7280 is also based on SM7325, I doubt they would just recycle that for a new Snapdragon laptop chip
psydroid@reddit
I run Linux on my laptop with a Snapdragon X chip. It's not ready for end users yet, but slowly getting there.
Windows works rather well on it, but the development workflow isn't great, if you're used to the flexibility and portability of Linux and other open source software.
horatiobanz@reddit
None of these Windows laptop manufacturers have the ability to even understand what makes the Neo special, so don't hold your breath. They will put out a shitty laptop with a shit display, keyboard, trackpad and speakers and just throw a tiny bit more ram and storage at it and claim it destroys the Neo.
wankthisway@reddit
Honestly I doubt they could even hit the Neo price point even if they wanted to. Apple only has to deal with themselves, TSMC, and maybe one or two more suppliers that need to make a profit.
Windows laptop manufacturers need to deal with: their CPU Vendor, their networking vendor, their graphics vendor, their touchpad and biometrics vendor, Microsoft for OS, and so on. They all need a piece of the pie,
pemb@reddit
Apple needs to deal with DRAM and NAND flash manufacturers at the very least. No, TSMC doesn't handle that stuff, they're only for logic ICs, Apple is at the mercy of the usual suspects, Samsung, Micron, SK Hynix, and a few others. You might have read a thing or two about the RAMpocalypse currently unfolding.
Honestly, I think you're underestimating the variety of components that go into making an Apple product, and also how demanding Apple is with their suppliers. They are ruthless. Lots of buggy, failure-prone or power-wasting bottom shelf components that end up in office PCs or cheap Androids aren't even considered when designing a MacBook or iPhone. Even their chargers are in a league of their own.
EstablishmentGlum622@reddit
actually, if this is based on a 8 gen 3, it will have better support for linux because of Valve
TI_Inspire@reddit
I don't follow... Why is that?
HyruleanKnight37@reddit
"...a return of 4GB laptops..."
lmao what
Windows 11 barely runs on 4GB RAM, even if you had 8x the swap file size on a gen 5 SSD it's still going to perform like shit. Does MS know this?
Strazdas1@reddit
When hunting down memory leak bugs the lowest i could get Win11 to run at was 6 GB of RAM not being reserved for kernel. Going lower made it hardly usable.
Quealdlor@reddit
Windows 11 barely runs even on 8 GB these days .... so bloated.
XTornado@reddit
Yeah windows is nah...
But hey if using Linux they ain't that bad I was just this week using a travelmate b3 from Acer... And man with Arch sway and choosing the right lightweight apps... is nice.
The battery last long time and runs fairly. Don't compile anything on it tough... although that is more an issue of the cpu than the ram. With a more recent cpu (ideally arm but yeah as others said support for some of those countries ain't great) it wouldn't be crazy bad for some people.
jaksystems@reddit
Probably trying to rely on the bump in memory bandwidth inherent to it being an SOC design - AKA the usual, lazy, brute force method.
Exist50@reddit
How would memory bandwidth help? It's a capacity issue.
HyruleanKnight37@reddit
If you had very fast RAM with a lot of bandwidth, say LPDDR5X 7500/8533 on a 256/512-bit wide bus and a large swap file on a very fast, low latency PCIe 5.0 storage, then you can somewhat alleviate low RAM capacity issues. That's how the Macbook Pro does it, which is why you often hear people say even 8GB of RAM is enough.
Of course MacOS should be credited for better memory management than Windows, which isn't a high bar anyway, but then again it wouldn't work very well on traditional Windows laptop hardware specs. Really puts into perspective how backwards our PC hardware is compared to Apple's designs.
lintstah1337@reddit
Using storage as a swap file is incredibly bad.
SSDs have a finite amount of write cycles and SSDs have moved from MLC into TLC and some even QLC which has even lower write cycles.
For a regular file if you store 10GB on SSD, it doesn't use up more write cycles to store that file.
Data from the RAM is completely random so if completely used up your RAM and it spills into your storage, that extra data into SSD is continuously writing and you would burn up your SSD write cycles in just months if not days.
This is a very common failure for MacBooks that have low ram and soldered SSDs
https://youtu.be/MZuv4TIjk-I?t=716
Exist50@reddit
They wouldn't die that fast, though it is a long term concern.
Exist50@reddit
NAND is orders of magnitude higher latency than even the slowest DRAM.
Quite frankly, the people saying that seem to open one tab and email and call that good enough. If you own a Mac, once you start hitting swap, the performance drop is very noticable. Even when it just starts heavily compressing, you can feel it.
HyruleanKnight37@reddit
Like LPDDR5X 8533? Assuming it'll have a 64-bit wide bus, which on a SoC targeting $300 laptops is quite likely, that's less bandwidth than a dual channel SODIMM DDR5 6000 setup.
pemb@reddit
I'd bet on a 32-bit wide bus, which is coming to bottom of the barrel DDR5 machines as well, they're calling it HUDIMM.
sn2006gy@reddit
The apple method? :D
jaksystems@reddit
The lazy, I don't want to optimize my shit method.
sn2006gy@reddit
oh they're optimizing it, but people like you think that's lazy
jaksystems@reddit
Brute forcing everything through memory bandwidth and capacity is the opposite of optimization.
sn2006gy@reddit
not really when the workloads are becoming "AI everything" and that method achieves the highest performance per dollar invested. ARM has always been SoC driven and part of its cost benefit is the direct memory and lower power consumption because of it. That is the definition of efficiency.
thawizard@reddit
Yes they do. That why no compute is really going to happen locally, it’s all about the cloud. This thing is a thin client at best.
pemb@reddit
This isn't even about local vs. cloud, it's about modern browsers and webpages eating RAM for breakfast. 4 GB Chromebooks are rough enough, and ChromeOS is already optimized towards low-end machines. Windows 11 will be a shitshow. Or are you proposing relocating the browser engine itself to the cloud?
pythonic_dude@reddit
That's one possible next move against ad blockers tbh.
HyruleanKnight37@reddit
You don't need such extravagant hardware for a thin client. An even more basic SoC with 1GB or less RAM is more than sufficient.
I guess it'll be more difficult to promote, though.
thawizard@reddit
For a Linux-based thin client, yeah, I can see that. But this thread is specifically about Windows 11.
hollow_bridge@reddit
It's clickbait. I checked the press release, 4gb isn't mentioned at all, this is pure guess work by Neowin.
It's based off acers press release stating " it offers up to 8 GB" Acer Aspire Go 15 but given that the current model only has an 8gb option I think its unlikely that they are going to reduce the ram by half.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
Acer is certainly broadcasting some SKUs will be less than 8GB. Neowin's writing here is pretty fair, all things considered.
Neowin:
Acer:
DerpSenpai@reddit
For Africa, Microsoft most likely will need to make a 4GB work on Windows
ProfessionalPrincipa@reddit
Ah but you're forgetting about that ARM pixie dust!
siazdghw@reddit
Qualcomm is already desperate, and it has nothing to do with the Neo.
The Qualcomm X Elite chip laptops sold extremely poorly and had a ton of returns due to no driver support, WoA performance and compatibility issues, no Linux support, bad game support and performance, etc. And then Lunar Lake and Panther Lake basically sealed the deal by being the overall better product even if it wasn't better in every way.
This is Qualcomm attempting to be relevant in the laptop market after the X Elite launch failure. Instead of targeting the premium and midrange laptops where people have expectations to have a laptop that actually WORKS as it should, they are now going after the bargain bin Chromebook segment to entry level Windows segment where people just want to be able to have a laptop that can browse the internet.
Will this work out for them? Maybe, it worked for Chromebooks by becoming the default in the Education sector. But it's basically admitting defeat. $300 laptops have atrocious margins, and when you make products this cheap it gives people a bad opinion on your overall brand; like the old Atom chips/Netbooks were awful for profit margins and awful for consumer sentiment.
Also focusing on an entry level chip/notebook in a time when wafers, RAM, SSDs and other components are priced skyhigh due to AI data centers is certainly a choice.
There is absolutely no money to be made in this segment for the foreseeable future.
Geddagod@reddit
I'm baffled at how this is the conclusion one arrives at when Qualcomm simply announces a new low end lineup. Even if we accept the premise to be true (Qcomm snapdragon x elite not receiving much success) how is simply offering low end skus "admitting defeat"?
Was Intel launching Wildcat lake this year admitting defeat for PTL? Was Intel launching Twin Lake late 2024 admitting defeat for LNL?
basedIITian@reddit
The entire logic is in reverse. Qualcomm as a chip designer makes a product when OEMs see a market fit for these products. They don't design chips and then start looking for customers.
HellsPerfectSpawn@reddit
The difference is that Intel has fab capacity which it needs to fill or they eat massive losses for idling very expensive machinery. A fabless supplier doesn't have the same constraints.
basedIITian@reddit
These are rebranded old mobile chips. They don't need to fab them.
Noble00_@reddit
According to Reptalicant on twitter:
Kenai
- 6nm
- 256KB L2$ 3GHz + 3x 256KB L2$ 2.6GHz + 4x 128KB L2$ 2GHz
- 900mHz Adreno GPU
- 32b LPDDR5
- 14*12mm package size, PCIe Gen 3 2-lane
Reptalica@reddit
A78 + A55....
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
Something like an overclocked Snapdragon 782G maybe? TSMC N6, 1x A78 @ 2.7 GHz, 3x A78 @ 2.4 GHz, 4x A55 @ 1.8 GHz, 32b LPDDR5, 719 MHz GPU.
256KB L2 on the big core excludes all the Cortex-X cores, as, IIRC, all those require 512KB minimum.
I would've hoped for the Oryon-M cores, but I imagine Qualcomm is not designing new dies for these (just like Apple) and is instead re-using already designed, already fabbed, already in HVM silicon. The 782G looks to be an overclocked 778G from early 2021, a half-decade ago.
Companies really are scrambling, it seems.
Verite_Rendition@reddit
Ooh, good eye! I had been thinking that this sounded like a rebrand of an earlier Snapdragon mobile chip, and the SD778G/782G certainly fits the bill.
I had initially been thinking they were resurrecting the 7c+ Gen 3, but the 1+3 core configuration seemingly rules that out.
Lolmaster300@reddit
intel and amd licensing keeps windows locked in, but yeah qualcomm's trying.
CVGPi@reddit
Sooo 8cx --> Snapdragon X,
7c --> Snapdragon C
steinfg@reddit
Not 7c. It's a rebranded 782G
wimpires@reddit
Windows ARM laptops won't/can't be price competitive like the Neo because they lack the vertical integration that Apple has.
The OS is an added license cost. But so is the SOC.
The only manufacturer who could theoretically even vertically integrate their SOC within a laptop is Huawei (banned in the US) and Samsung.
And Samsung doesn't take Laptops seriously enough to divert large sums of money into R&D into a platform they don't even have full control over.
cronies4life@reddit
i doubt it can beat macbook neo's single threaded performance under the same thermal envelope
vk6_@reddit
That's kind of a pointless comparison because this is targeting $300 and the Macbook Neo is $600.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
To be specific, Qualcomm is sharing Snapdragon C is targeting "$300 and up". We'll find out in a few months what "and up" can mean.
I'll eat a hat if the announced Snapdragon C system has an MSRP of $300 for the mentioned 8GB / 512GB SKU.
4GB / 128GB, maybe?
77ilham77@reddit
And I'm willing to bet that "$300 and up" is just a corporate-speak for "it starts at $399".
vk6_@reddit
The pricing on these new Snapdragon C laptops can only go so high before encroaching onto the existing Snapdragon X1 systems. $300 on the lowest end with 8GB of RAM seems reasonable when Snapdragon X1 with 16GB RAM and a 512GB SSD costs $450 brand new today. And keep in mind these are using much older ARM Cortex based phone chips so there's good reason to believe they can make the price very cheap for OEMs.
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
I do mean MSRPs. I agree there's a concern with overlapping, but suppliers usually don't overlap MSRPs. It's normal that higher-end old gen products will be discounted, forcing the lower-end new generation's prices to often overlap.
The Lenovo 16GB / 512GB "$450" laptop is also on a steep discount; the actual MSRP is $970.
$300 N305 8GB Windows laptops: as far as I can see, those are all on sale down from an MSRP $400 - $600. Are any $300 MSRP, as Qualcomm is claiming? $300 MSRP is what is I find unlikely for 8GB / 512GB, as some fixed costs are permanent: packaging, shipping, support, warranty / RMA, certifications, etc.
Now, for a consumer, I agree MSRPs mean little. I am taking Qualcomm's word directly on MSRPs.
vk6_@reddit
Qualcomm never actually claimed $300 would be the MSRP price point. The word "MSRP" isn't in their press release.
In all seriousness though, it's a bit silly to be stuck up on semantics here. I mean, the only reason some people think the laptops will start with 4GB of RAM is because Acer said "8GB and up" without elaborating.
I seriously doubt they meant MSRP in their press release anyways. In their Snapdragon X1 press releases for instance, they said laptops would start at $600, but there aren't any X1 laptops with such a low MSRP. They're always selling for under $600 though. They probably just got a vague promise from some of their OEM partners that they'd sell laptops at those prices sometime in the future.
Besides, a $300 MSRP on any new laptop is ridiculous. Look up the MSRP on an 11 inch Chromebook with an Intel N100 and 4GB of RAM, for instance (some examples). They are the absolute lowest tier current-gen laptops that exist, but the MSRP is always like $400 or higher.
If you just take a look at the current market, with X1 laptops constantly selling for $450 or $500, then it doesn't seem unreasonable for a 8GB laptop with a small SSD and dirt cheap Snapdragon C chips to hit a $300 price point.
77ilham77@reddit
Let's be real. The only thing would ever come out as $300 with this chip is a piss-poor plastic laptop with washed out 1080p LCD and storage advertised as "1,064 TB" where you get 64GB eMMC and the rest of the "1TB" is one year subscription for OneDrive.
vk6_@reddit
You can buy laptops today with an 8 core Intel N305 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage (typically UFS) for around $300 today, inside actual physical stores like Best Buy. You don't need to look at scams from no name third party Amazon sellers. And those Intel chips are likely a lot more expensive than the re-released old phone chips that Qualcomm is announcing here with the Snapdragon C. You can even buy the Intel based Acer Aspire Go 15 for $360, directly from Acer today. Considering all of this, I think it's a bit silly that people are automatically assuming this chip is going into ewaste with 4GB of RAM.
Besides, if you're looking for a "Neo Killer," you'll be disappointed because this is quite literally the wrong market segment for that. It makes good clickbait for news articles though. The Snapdragon C competes with the Intel N series Alder Lake N chips primarily. Why would OEMs use this for $400-600 laptops when the significantly better Snapdragon X is currently being sold in $450-600 laptops?
77ilham77@reddit
That's not the OEM prices nor the MSRP. That Lenovo you linked from your other replies, that's MSRP $750-$1000. AFAIK no other Snapdragon X started with MSRP $400-$500 (other than spec'd with aforementioned "piss-poor plastic", "washed out 1080p", and "1TB OneDrive").
Why would OEM make $400-$600 laptops with this chip? Because they want to make money, duh. Isn't that obvious? Do I really need to state that? If retailers like Wallmart want to knocked the price down and use other venue to make up the difference (upselling the customers on other stuff from their shop, etc.), well that's on them. Regardless what the retailers do, the OEM will get $400-600 from these laptops.
vk6_@reddit
I've said this before in my other comments: MSRP is meaningless. Lenovo claims their Snapdragon X1 IdeaPad Slim 3x has a $970 MSRP. Their significantly better X2 Plus based Ideapad Slim 5x has a $850 MSRP, and you can even get that with a 3K 165hz OLED for $30 more. Are we going to say that the X2 Plus laptop is a more budget device because the MSRP was arbitrarily set lower? Comparing MSRP numbers is just a pointless game.
I know for a fact that the X1 laptop going for $450 today has been priced at approximately $450-550 for the past few months, because I often browse online retailers looking for laptop deals for my friends. Nobody is going to call this an $970 laptop when the market shows it's worth half the amount. It's just marketing on the OEM's part, so they can claim they're giving a ridiculously high discount percentage.
No Snapdragon X1 laptops ever had an MSRP close to $600. We can agree on that. But take a look at the old Snapdragon X1 press releases from Qualcomm, which talked about X1 laptops starting at $600. They indeed were sold at that price point at major retailers. I think it's clear that Qualcomm never was referring to MSRP here.
77ilham77@reddit
Not when newly released. Sure, retailers will knocked the price down six months, one year later or so to clear out their inventories.
When OEMs announce their laptop with this Snapdragon C chips, it will be around the Neo's $400-600ish price point. Sure, retailers will knocked half of that price down within months (especially when they realise these things are shit and won't even hold candle to Intel's offering of the same MSRP let alone the Neo's two year old A18 Pro, and they need to clear this PoS fast). The only Snapdragon C you'll see with MSRP of $300 is either the aforementioned "64GB with 1TB OneDrive", or a Google's ~~Chromebook~~ ~~Googlebook~~ Slopbook.
cronies4life@reddit
are you referring to pre owned x1 laptops people are selling on ebay because people would rather get an x86? LOL
vk6_@reddit
Have you browsed any major electronics retailer lately? Snapdragon X1 laptops almost always sell for $600 or less brand new.
cronies4life@reddit
they're clearing unsold stock i guess, 600 ain't their msrp when they first launched
vk6_@reddit
The prices dropped a lot during the first few months after the X1 launch, and have been pretty stable ever since. You might have seen the initial batch of reviews cite higher prices than what would be seen on the market just a few months later.
frankster@reddit
The windows licence will be the single most expensive component in that system
TheGillos@reddit
Microsoft should be paying me to use Windows.
unbrokenwreck@reddit
The only correct answer.
Irisena@reddit
Bro, at least make it a macbook neo competitor with a SD8 elite or something. Shipping a laptop with a 782G with software WoA-fully unoptimized for it is going to end in a disaster.
Macbook neo is popular because it's still "good enough" for most tasks and multitasking. But when it is not good enough for even basic tasks, it'll just leave people with bad impression. Watch as people open excel on it and gets annoyed when it chugs.
stefan9999@reddit
This could be something similar to 8s gen 4, but without cellular modem
bluke424@reddit
So an upper mid-range chip, not a flagship one (the Elite). Well, the Macbook Neo has a flagship chip inside (A18 Pro, not A18).
Let's hope these really will be 300$ and bellow, with good screens, speakers, keyboards, build quality and so on.
DerpSenpai@reddit
the snapdragon 8 gen 5 is as capable as the A18 Pro and it's upper midrange/sub flagship (it's basically this years 8s)
bhop_monsterjam@reddit
hopefully we can move on from snapdragon soon and get some competition on the go. i don't get why we're still stuck with them
xMarkyMarkx@reddit
the c series is actually positioned for chromebooks and ipads, not windows.
knightofterror@reddit
iPad is an Apple product not likely to use this chip. lol
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
Not quite, it appears. From The Verge:
iPads are not expected to switch to Qualcomm SoCs.
chandleya@reddit
Sweet, a worse performing Windows option for poor software compatibility and no cost savings over an N series.
UmaThurmish@reddit
dont forget much worse quality than Neo, a worse screen, and less RAM efficiency
-protonsandneutrons-@reddit (OP)
More explicitly written by PC Mag, these do not use Oryon cores, but Arm Cortex cores:
Source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/qualcomm-snapdragon-c-chips-for-budget-laptops-computex-2026