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Tom’s Guide

Technology

Darragh Murphy

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon X2 Plus CPUs at CES 2026 — and it promises an ‘epic’ upgrade

Qualcomm Snapdragon CES 2026 Laptops Tom Guide (Organization)

Qualcomm has just announced its latest Snapdragon X2 Plus CPU at CES 2026, further expanding its lineup of Snapdragon X Series processors for upcoming laptops this year.

The Snapdragon X2 Plus follows the same pattern as the tech giant’s last-gen chipsets, being a step down from the already revealed Snapdragon X2 Elite (and X2 Elite Extreme). However, a significant jump in performance, battery efficiency and AI power compared to its predecessor.

Just how much of an improvement? Thanks to the third-gen Qualcomm Oryon CPU with up to 10 cores offering up to a 35% faster CPU single-core performance, 43% better power efficiency for longer battery life and 80 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) in the Hexagon NPU, expect a boost in a wide range of mid-range laptops.

Arriving in Copilot+ laptops in the first half of 2026, let's dive into what we know about the Snapdragon X2 Plus so far.

Snapdragon X2 Plus: What we know

Like the Snapdragon X2 Elite chips, the X2 Plus brings advanced performance to Arm-based laptops and aims to achieve multi-day battery life along with native built-in AI features. Think of the Plus as the mid-range to Elite’s (and Extreme’s) premium lineup.

There are two models available: the Snapdragon X2 Plus X2P-64-100 and the Snapdragon X2 Plus X2P-42-100. The former comes with a 10-core CPU, while the latter sports a 6-core CPU. Here’s a quick rundown of the specs and how they compare to their Elite counterparts:

	CPU cores	Max MultiCore Frequency	Max Boost Frequency	Cache	Qualcomm Adreno GPU	Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (TOPS)	Memory
Snapdragon X2 Plus (X2P-64-100)	10 (6 Prime Cores, 4 Performance Cores)	4.0 GHz	4.04 single-core	34MB	X2-45	80	128 GB/s LPDDR5x
Snapdragon X2 Plus (X2P-64-100)	6 (6Prime Cores)	4.0 GHz	4.04 single-core	22MB	X2-45	80	128 GB/s LPDDR5x
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)	18 (12 Prime Cores, 6 Performance Cores)	4.4 GHz	5.0 GHz single-core / 5.0 GHz dual-core	53MB	X2-90	80	228 GB/s LPDDR5x
Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-88-100)	18 (12 Prime Cores, 6 Performance Cores)	4.0 GHz	4.7 GHz single-core / 4.7 GHz dual-core	53MB	X2-90	80	152 GB/s LPDDR5x
Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-80-100)	12 (6 Prime Cores, 6 Performance Cores)	4.0 GHz	4.7 GHz single-core / 4.4 GHz dual-core	34MB	X2-85	80	152 GB/s LPDDR5x

Impressively, the Snapdragon X2 Plus also features the same Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, integrated Adreno GPU (up to 1.7GHz) with a near-30% improvement over its predecessor and the same TOPs to make it the “world’s fastest NPU for laptops.”

“Modern professionals and creators want to do more, create more, and push the limits of generative AI and all-day performance,” says Kedar Kondap, SVP and GM of computing and gaming at Qualcomm.” Snapdragon X2 Plus platform delivers the power, efficiency and intelligence to surpass their ambitions, making each experience more responsive and personal.”

That should bring a significant step up compared to the Snapdragon X Plus chip, and at a more affordable price than the Elite series. We can expect to see these chips in laptops arriving in 2026, and who knows, they may just make our list of the best laptops this year once we put them through their paces.