Qualcomm showcases Snapdragon X Series processors in first-ever SEA Media Summit
Snapdragon X Platform tech and future plans for the region were highlighted.
Qualcomm recently held its Snapdragon X Series SEA Summit, the first event of its kind in Southeast Asia. While Qualcomm has been a well-known brand for years in the smartphone space, the company has been making a push toward laptops since the release of the Snapdragon X series processors that powered the first generation of Copilot+ PCs.
These Copilot+ PCs were developed in cooperation with Microsoft and hardware partners. Laptops with this branding come with dedicated NPUs for on-device AI processing, as well as exclusive Windows AI features such as Cocreator in Microsoft Paint.
In 2024, Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus processors for a range of laptops, but at CES last January 2025, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon X. This processor sits below the Elite and Plus models as it’s designed for entry-level laptops. Despite its entry-level focus, the base Snapdragon X promises to deliver similar AI features with promising performance and battery life to boot.
During the recent SEA Summit, Qualcomm highlighted the Snapdragon X family. Along with showcasing their AI features, Qualcomm also shared insights into the SEA market, and they invited hardware partners to share their thoughts along with future plans regarding Snapdragon-powered AI laptops.
Qualcomm Puts the Spotlight on Snapdragon X Series and Copilot+ PCs
The summit opened with a presentation by Kedar Kondap, SVP and GM of Compute and Gaming at Qualcomm. There, he shared how Southeast Asia is a global innovation powerhouse given its adaptation of AI. In the future, Kondap said that they believe more companies and professionals will make use of AI software and features in their workflows.
What followed was a quick showcase of the Copilot+ PC range by Adam Owee, GM of Device Partner Sales at Qualcomm. Initially, Copilot+ PCs were powered only by Snapdragon X Elite or Plus processors, but later in 2024, laptops powered by Intel and AMD chips were also released.
That doesn’t mean Qualcomm’s involvement is over though as they reiterated that the partnership with Microsoft is still ongoing, and there are more developments in store, especially when it comes to app compatibility and virtualization. The last two are especially important given how these are key things that need to be addressed with ARM processors running Windows.
Also mentioned during the Copilot+ PC talk was the fact that Windows 10 support will end on October 14, 2025. This means Windows 10 PCs will no longer get security updates after this. As such, users are encouraged to upgrade ASAP.
Following this, Qualcomm VP of Product Management Nitin Kumar put the spotlight on Snapdragon X. As mentioned above, the Snapdragon X is the latest processor in the Windows ARM processor line from Qualcomm, and the focus for this is to make the AI tech of the Elite and Plus CPUs more accessible.
Even though the Snapdragon X is made for entry-level laptops, this processor still promises to pack a punch performance-wise. In the presentation, Kumar shared that the base Snapdragon X outperforms the Intel Core 5 120U in single and multi-core Geekbench benchmarks, all while also having better battery life in streaming, online calls, and web browsing.
To wrap up the first part of the presentation, Qualcomm Senior Director of Compute Alicia Lim helped demonstrate some of the AI features of Snapdragon X-powered laptops. One of the highlights was the support for the Moises app which uses AI (and the Snapdragon X’s NPU) to let users turn down the volume of vocals or melodies in songs. Yes, this means you can make any song an instrumental or an acapella.
Executives from Dell, HP, Lenovo, and ASUS Share Their Insights
Following the first part of the presentation, Qualcomm held a fireside chat where they invited SEA executives from partner manufacturers Dell, HP, Lenovo, and ASUS.
The 45-minute panel discussion delved into various topics centered around the current and future trends in SEA regarding AI PCs. Interestingly, all four execs mentioned that they see Southeast Asians as early AI adopters, meaning they see the region as a huge market for AI PCs in the coming years.
Aside from SEA’s willingness to embrace AI, they also noted some unique aspects of the market. To be exact, they talked about how the majority of SEA laptop buyers still prefer the in-store experience of testing units out before buying them. This is in contrast to other regions where e-commerce has become the standard even for laptop purchases. As such, they mentioned that this is something that brands need to keep in mind as they share details on AI laptop features and capabilities.
Finally, the execs mentioned some of their thoughts on the near future. While they didn’t mention any specific “killer app” that we haven’t seen before from AI, all believe that the use of AI software will continue to rise in SEA, especially as more and more apps are making use of NPUs built into processors like Snapdragon’s X series.
What We Learned From the Snapdragon X Series SEA Summit
After the fireside chat, we got to see an array of Snapdragon-powered laptops in action, complete with themed demonstrations about their capabilities.
Some of these demos included showcases of Copilot+ PC features that we’ve explored before, along with some interesting new ones like the Moises app. Plus, we also got to see the capabilities of the Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptop performance-wise as it was able to render a video even while three monitors were hooked up to it.
Even though they weren’t showcased as much in the demo areas, we did see some ASUS Snapdragon X laptops. Given that they’re positioned as more affordable entry-level laptops, we’re quite interested to see how they stack up to real-world use. After all, they promise to be capable partners for work, especially for those who need a laptop mostly for Office apps and web browsing, all while boasting a noticeably longer battery life compared to other notebooks.
Overall, while the presentations had plenty of interesting information, one of our key takeaways here is that Qualcomm is committed to growing its Windows PC business. Sure, ARM processors for Windows have been talked about for years now. Now though, it seems they’re here to stay as Qualcomm promised that there are plenty more developments to come.
Plus, Qualcomm promised that this first Snapdragon X Series SEA Summit won’t be the last time they’ll showcase their new tech in SEA. Thus, it looks like Qualcomm’s goal is to become a big player in the PC space (as it is in the smartphone scene) and be a household name when it comes to AI PCs much like the established brands, Intel and AMD.