Qualcomm is adding yet another member of the Snapdragon X lineup to the family, and this once is cheaper than ever. After the Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus, Qualcomm today introduced the base-level Snapdragon X chip, bringing Windows an Arm and Copilot+ to the cheapest entry point yet.

With the Snapdragon X, the company is bringing the signature efficiency of Arm, as well as an NPU with 45TOPS of performance, to laptops in the $600 range. What's more, Qualcomm is still promising performance that is far ahead of what Intel offers in the same segment.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X is an 8-core chip

Despite having different branding, the new Snapdragon X actually has the same number of cores as the (aptly-named) Snapdragon X Plus 8-core. The main difference here is that the cores are clocked lower, at 3GHz instead of 3.2GHZ. You also get the same GPU performance up to 1.7TFLOPS, and the NPU is the same across the entire Snapdragon X family, with 45TOPS of performance and Copilot+ support.

In fact, Qualcomm processors are far and away the cheapest way to get a Copilot+ PC, with offerings from Intel and AMD costing well over $1,000. Qualcomm also points out that its most direct competitors (such as the Intel Core 5 120U and AMD Ryzen 5 7540U) don't have an NPU at all, and even if you step up to the Intel Core Ultra 7 155U, the NPU in the Snapdragon X is up to 3.7 times faster, despite this chip being much cheaper.

But that's not all; Qualcomm also touts class-leading CPU and GPU performance. Compared to the aforementioned Intel Core 5 120U, Qualcomm promises up to 163% faster single-core CPU performance and 157% faster multi-core. At the same time, the Intel chip requires 240% more power to achieve the same level of performance. The difference is even more stark for the GPU, with Qualcomm touting up to 319% faster GPU performance at the same power level, while Intel needs to use 258% more power to achieve the same level of performance.

Of course, all of that means you can expect much longer battery life, too, with Qualcomm estimating more than double the battery life for Netflix streaming or using Microsoft 365 apps.

It's coming very soon

Qualcomm has been steadily introducing new members of the Snapdragon X family, and the brand-new Snapdragon X isn't far off. Laptops with this chip are going to be launching this month from major laptop brands including HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, and Asus. Again, prices should start at around $600.