Snapdragon C powers $300 Windows laptops, undercutting Macbook Neo

The first Windows laptops and tablets with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X processors launched a couple of years ago, bringing good battery life and AI smarts to the table. These chips have largely appeared in premium to mid-range laptops, but Qualcomm has just unveiled a brand-new Windows chip for cheap laptops.

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon C processor a few days ahead of the Computex expo. The company says this chipset will appear in laptops that cost ~$300 or more, making it a truly mainstream play for Snapdragon-powered Windows laptops. In fact, Qualcomm suggests that this chip will power laptops aimed at classrooms, small business owners, and families.

Qualcomm revealed almost no details about the chip, but confirmed in a media briefing that it didn’t have custom Oryon CPU cores. Instead, it said the processor had Kryo CPU cores based on Arm’s IP. The company didn’t specify which Arm cores were used, though. It also didn’t reveal info regarding the GPU, the maximum amount of RAM, or the specific manufacturing process.

The chip designer said that laptops with the Snapdragon C would deliver cool and quiet designs, long battery life, and some AI capabilities thanks to the integrated NPU. However, Qualcomm told journalists that this NPU wouldn’t support Copilot Plus capabilities, suggesting that it doesn’t meet the 40 TOPs requirement.

Acer is the first brand to launch a laptop powered by the Snapdragon C, as it announced the Aspire Go 15. Acer describes it as a “mainstream” product, featuring the aforementioned chipset, up to 8GB of RAM, and up to 512GB of storage. Other notable specs include a 15.6-inch display (1080p, 16:9), two “full-function” USB-C ports, an HDMI port, a 1080p webcam, and a 53Wh battery.

Unfortunately, Acer hasn’t revealed pricing or availability for the Aspire Go 15 just yet. Qualcomm’s previous statement about targeting the $300-and-above price segment suggests we could be looking at a cheap Snapdragon laptop that significantly undercuts the $600 MacBook Neo. So here’s hoping we have an aggressively priced product.

Could this chip power Googlebooks, though? We asked Qualcomm about this possibility:

We’re excited about our partnership with Google for Googlebooks, and will share more details in the near future.

In other words, your guess is as good as mine. Qualcomm is one of several chip partners for the platform, so it wouldn’t be a surprise if the Snapdragon C (or Snapdragon X family) lands in several Google-powered laptops.