The MacBook Neo has shaken up the budget Windows laptop space, and Qualcomm is responding with Snapdragon C at Computex 2026. Aimed squarely at the $300-$400 range, you can expect new cheap notebooks from the likes of Acer, HP and Lenovo rocking it.
Specs are unclear at the moment, but we expect this to be similar to the Neo's A18 Pro — the same sort of construction as the Snapdragon X2 Elite (a CPU, GPU and NPU for AI), but with a lower core count across the board.
No specifics have been announced, but if these machines offer a comparable experience, Apple could have legitimate competition.
So, of course, the biggest question is: can Snapdragon C help Windows laptops compete with the MacBook Neo? We don’t have enough information to determine that right now, but the possibility is certainly intriguing.
Snapdragon C: The basics
As Qualcomm describes it, Snapdragon C is designed for entry-level laptops used by students, families, and small businesses. In other words, the same crowd Apple is targeting with the MacBook Neo.
Price plays a major factor here, with Qualcomm claiming Snapdragon C laptops will land in the $300-$400 range. If that turns out to be the case, that would be lower than the Neo’s $599 starting price. It would also be the opposite of the inflated prices we’ve been seeing all year, thanks to the RAM crisis.
“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,” said Kedar Kondap, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Compute and Gaming, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
“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.”
Snapdragon C laptops promise all-day battery life. This is something we should take seriously, given that laptops with Snapdragon X chips are among the longest-lasting we’ve tested at Tom’s Guide. If the lower-tier C processors offer anything close to 15-20 hours of endurance, they could quite literally lap the Neo in battery life.
In addition to supporting everyday tasks like web browsing, video streaming, and productivity, the Snapdragon C chip also has an integrated NPU for on-device AI tasks. The jury is still out on the usefulness of on-device AI (I still find it all undercooked), but this could be seen as futureproofing if and when AI becomes more useful.
The first Snapdragon C laptop
We don’t yet have a full list of Snapdragon C laptop manufacturers, but some of the big names currently attached include HP, Lenovo, and Acer. The latter is particularly noteworthy, as Acer is the first PC maker in the world to announce a laptop powered by Snapdragon C with the Acer Aspire Go 15.
Like the MacBook Neo, this laptop starts with 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and two USB-C ports. Differences include a 15.6-inch display instead of the Neo’s 13-inch screen and an HDMI port. Acer’s press release says the Aspire Go 15 features plastic components, which would be a downgrade from the Neo’s all-aluminum frame.
Snapdragon C vs. MacBook Neo
Both the MacBook Neo and Snapdragon C laptops are aimed squarely at the casual crowd, so it wouldn't surprise me if the C has more in common with Qualcomm's mobile architecture than we're expecting.
That'd fall in line nicely with how the Neo is literally just an iPhone chip (the A18 Pro) but also demonstrated just how much that tiny silicon can actually do!
However, nothing has been announced about cores and clock speeds (yet). We're aiming to get more information about this at Computex 2026 in Taipei!
But to set a target for any Qualcomm laptops to hit, they've gotta aim to drink the MacBook Neo's milkshake — hitting that sweet spot of just enough power for casual use, while giving enough headroom for manufacturers to provide a more premium build quality than the plastic shells and tacky displays they've been doing so far.
Bottom line
Right now, it’s hard to believe that a $300-$400 Windows laptop can hope to match the Neo as an overall package. Will these machines have aluminum frames and vibrant displays like the Neo, or will they have the kind of cheap plastic designs and dim screens we’re used to?
Sure, the price sounds right, but as the Neo has shown, price and specs alone aren’t enough. Laptops need to offer folks more, even if they’re budget machines.
We’ll need to go hands-on with Snapdragon C laptops to see how they compare to the MacBook Neo, both in terms of performance and in daily use. If they can match the experience, then we might all owe Apple for, ironically enough, making laptops more affordable.
