Qualcomm wants to sell you a laptop after dominating the market of high-end mobile chips for so long. The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 was announced at the end of the last year as part of Qualcomm’s annual Snapdragon summit, and it’s the chipmaker’s latest entry into laptop components. Qualcomm’s third big venture into the sector, as the name indicates. It comes at a time when Apple’s in-house chip manufacture has given way to its own ARM-based laptop CPUs, which have delivered some impressive performance results. Qualcomm is aiming to accomplish the same with a Windows 11 Pro-based laptop that incorporates mobile performance games.
While speculations swirl around a Microsoft Surface tablet based on the platform, Lenovo just unveiled its own gadget, the ThinkPad X13s, at the Mobile World Congress. The platform’s benefits are obvious at first look, as it delivers on the long-term promise of moving to ARM architecture in a laptop form size. It’s ultra-thin and light, features built-in 5G, excellent battery life, and is built on many generations of Qualcomm security improvements. Lenovo is an excellent initial partner in this situation. For one reason, many people associate the ThinkPad brand with business computers. Lenovo may also be the most willing to try new things when it comes to laptops.
Looking at the specifications, the 13-inch laptop weighs 2.35 pounds, which is around half a pound less than the 2020 MacBook Air. It’s 0.53 inches thick, which is just in the middle of the Air’s 0.16 to 0.63-inch thickness range. The battery life is the main focus here, with a claimed 28 hours of movie playback. In a pre-event briefing, one executive stated that he’d transported the system to New York for an overnight trip but never plugged it in, which sounds very plausible.
The inclusion of a computer vision engine for enhanced log-in authentication is another Qualcomm perk. The system’s body is made up of 90% recycled magnesium, and the pointing stick is still there. The system will be available in May for $1,099.
