Qualcomm has announced two major additions to its portfolio: the Snapdragon X2 Elite series for Windows PCs and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform. Both platforms are built on the company’s 3rd Gen Oryon CPU and are positioned to set new performance and AI benchmarks across devices.
The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is designed for ultra-premium Windows 11 PCs, targeting power users, professional creators and researchers with workloads such as media editing, data analytics and AI-driven applications. Qualcomm claims the platform delivers up to 75% faster CPU performance at equal power compared to rivals, supported by a redesigned Adreno GPU offering 2.3x better performance per watt. Its Hexagon NPU, rated at 80 TOPS, is being promoted as the fastest AI processor in laptops.
The standard Snapdragon X2 Elite, meanwhile, focuses on multitasking efficiency for premium PCs, offering up to 31% faster performance while consuming up to 43% less power than its predecessor. Both chips are expected to power thin and light designs with multi-day battery life. Devices using the new processors are expected in the first half of 2026.
On the mobile side, there’s the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which it describes as the world’s fastest mobile SoC. Performance upgrades include a 20% CPU boost, 23% GPU gains, and a Hexagon NPU that is 37% faster than the previous generation. The platform emphasizes “agentic AI,” with on-device personalized assistants capable of proactive actions through multimodal learning, while ensuring data remains local to the device.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 also debuts support for Advanced Professional Video (APV) recording, a feature aimed at enabling studio-grade video capture and post-production directly from smartphones. Qualcomm confirmed that the new platform will be adopted by OEMs, including Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus, OPPO, vivo, Sony and others, with flagship launches beginning in the coming days.
