Apple’s MacBook Neo might be the current budget laptop darling, but it won’t be for much longer if Qualcomm has anything to say about it. The chipmaker has just announced Snapdragon C, a new line of wallet-friendly silicon that’s purpose-built for entry level PCs and notebooks.
As well as promising “responsive” performance and “all-day” battery life in a cool and quiet design, it’ll also have an AI-capable neural processing unit (NPU) – because Qualcomm’s shareholders would implode if the firm did anything that ignored the tech world’s favourite buzzword. The C in Snapdragon C even stands for Compute.
The price of Snapdragon C-powered devices could start from as little as $300, undercutting Apple’s entry-grade laptop and competing more directly with Google’s Chromebook initiative. It surely helps that the new line arrives while memory and storage costs have never been higher, on account of skyrocketing demand from the AI industry.
Technical details were scarce during the initial announcement; I’m expecting Qualcomm to go into much more detail in the coming week ahead of the Computex trade show where the first Snapdragon C-powered machines should debut. All we know right now is that the chips are based on an entirely different architecture from Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme, currently powering beefy high-end laptops like the Asus Zenbook A16.
“As costs rise and customer expectations evolve, Snapdragon C brings together value oriented computing, all-day battery life, AI capabilities and responsive performance in cool-quiet devices for expanded platform choice,” Kedar Kondap, Qualcomm’s Senior VP of Compute and Gaming, said ahead of the reveal. “We’re delivering modern computing experiences that help our ecosystem reach new audiences and expanding access to reliable, efficient technology for students, families, customer-facing small businesses, and beyond.”
Qualcomm is leaving the official device reveals to the hardware manufacturers, but has confirmed Acer, HP and Lenovo will all be first in line. I’m expecting to get a first look next week at Computex in Taiwan. Products could then be on sale before the end of the summer.
Thanks to Qualcomm for inviting me to be their guest at Computex 2026. All experiences were hosted but no additional compensation was received.
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