Qualcomm announces Snapdragon X2 Plus laptop chips with 6-core and 10-core options
Qualcomm has revealed the Snapdragon X2 Plus series at CES 2026 as a step below its Snapdragon X2 Elite parts, aimed at thinner Windows laptops that do not need the top-tier SKU.
I saw some reports about X2 Plus claiming this could be the most important launch. I don’t think that’s the case. Qualcomm’s market share is still close to zero, and most compatibility issues have not been solved. With the X2 series, Qualcomm is promising major updates on that front. Let’s see if users who ever considered gaming on these systems will also be satisfied with regular updates.
Today’s update includes two SoCs: Snapdragon X2 Plus X2P-42-100 (6 cores) and X2P-64-100 (10 cores). Qualcomm says both use its 3rd Gen Oryon CPU design, paired with an 80 TOPS Hexagon NPU. The 10-core chip is listed with a 6 Prime plus 4 Performance core split, while the 6-core model uses Prime cores only, with Prime cores clocking up to 4.04 GHz. Graphics are handled by an Adreno X2-45 iGPU, clocked up to 1.7 GHz on the 10-core part and 0.9 GHz on the 6-core part, with support listed for DirectX 12.2 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenCL 3.0.
Source: Qualcomm
On the platform side, Qualcomm lists support for up to 128 GB of LPDDR5x-9523 on a 128-bit bus, with 152 GB/s of bandwidth. Connectivity includes Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, with optional 5G called out in Qualcomm’s CES marketing, plus support for up to three USB-C ports. Display output is listed as up to three 4K 144 Hz panels at the same time.
Source: Qualcomm
Qualcomm’s own slides claim up to 35% higher single-core performance versus the prior Snapdragon X Plus, with multi-core gains of up to 17% for the 10-core model and up to 10% for the 6-core model, based on Geekbench 6.5. For graphics, Qualcomm cites up to 29% higher iGPU performance for the 10-core chip and up to 39% for the 6-core chip, using 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, plus an NPU uplift it describes as 78% generation-on-generation. The company also compares the 10-core X2 Plus against Intel’s Core Ultra 7 265U in its charts, including “ISO power” and peak-performance claims, which will need third-party testing to validate.
Laptops using Snapdragon X2 Plus are expected to arrive in the first half of 2026, so CES systems should be the first public look at how these chips land in real devices. As usual for vendor benchmark slides, it makes sense to wait for independent reviews covering sustained performance, app compatibility, and battery life.
Source: Qualcomm
