Less than 1.25 centimetres thick and with a stunning design, these mini-PCs are still in the prototype stage.
Just over a year ago, Qualcomm announced - with a great deal of publicity - the arrival of its first Snapdragon processors for the laptop and desktop markets. The American company did not pull any punches, and was able to count on the support of Microsoft, which at the same time launched its new Copilot+ PC family. The stated aim of both companies was to bring to market a Windows solution for these ARM processors, which were expected to offer far greater autonomy - a crucial issue when it comes to notebooks.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite processor range © Qualcomm
However, more than a year after the launch, we can't say that the market has really been revolutionized. Qualcomm Snapdragon processors have undoubtedly met with some success among laptop users, but there has been no tidal wave, and the laptop market remains largely dominated by x86/x64 processors from AMD and Intel. Of course, Qualcomm is not discouraged by this, and the Snapdragon X2 Elite processors will provide an opportunity to "get back in the game" by targeting markets other than laptops. Qualcomm's partners will be offering laptops equipped in this way, but there's also the question of capturing users in search of mini-PCs.
This was Qualcomm's message at the Snapdragon Summit 2025, an event logically focused entirely on its new processor range. As HotHardware shows in its video - above - shot on site, the Snapdragon X2 Elite will be integrated into PCs with a fearsomely compact format. For the time being, these are only prototypes, and no names or partners have been given, but we can already see the potential of these new chips as Qualcomm claims that these are machines equipped with the most powerful Snapdragon X2 Elite model, the one with 18 cores. And yet, the very low heat output means that these mini-PCs are barely 1.25 centimetres thick, with some very nice shapes, such as this round machine that looks like an external optical disk drive. The release of the new Snapdragon X2 Elite and the first machines equipped in this way is not expected before next year, however...
