The first Snapdragon-powered Mac Mini competitors are here

Qualcomm has announced its Snapdragon X series chips Windows over Arm last year, but these processors initially fell only on laptops. What if you want a desktop Windows machine? Snapdragon strength? Well, now you’re in luck.

Qualcomm and Lenovo have introduced the first mini desktops equipped with Snapdragon X chips, namely the consumer-oriented IdeaCentre Mini x (1L, 10) and the business-oriented ThinkCentre Neo 50g QC. Both machines have a compact one-liter chassis, so they shouldn’t take up much space. They also run Windows 11 on the Arm, as you’d expect.

Starting with the IdeaCentre Mini x, this desktop PC comes with a Snapdragon X (more on that later) or Snapdragon X Plus chip, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 1TB of NVMe Gen 4 storage, and a 150W PSU comes with The machine also has plenty of I/O options, including DisplayPort 1.4a, HDMI 2.1, USB 4.0, full-size USB ports, an Ethernet port, and Wi-Fi 7. Lenovo adds that the machine allows component swapping, but hasn’t specified which parts are swappable.

The ThinkCentre Neo 50g QC is a more business-oriented offering. Expect a Snapdragon X or Snapdragon X Plus octa-core chip, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to two SSDs. There are also plenty of ports and connectivity options like a headphone jack, HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4a support, full-size USB ports, USB-C, Gigabit Ethernet port and Wi-Fi 6E.

Nevertheless, a mini desktop with a Snapdragon chip can be great for people who want a power-hungry but capable machine for productivity, casual use (such as web browsing and media playback), or media server capabilities. Desktops with Intel or AMD chips still offer the best software compatibility and better support for games, but if you need AI silicon for supported apps or are worried about your power consumption, a Snapdragon desktop might be in order.

The news of these mini desktops also comes a while after Qualcomm quietly killed off its developer-focused desktop, so we’re glad to see it’s finally an option. Expect to pay $849 when the ThinkCentre Neo 50g QC goes on sale next month. Meanwhile, the IdeaCentre Mini x will go on sale in April 2025 and will set you back $659.99.

Qualcomm also announced a brand new chip in its Snapdragon X series, dubbed the Snapdragon X (model number X1-26-100). This processor is designed for $600 laptops and brings Snapdragon-powered PCs to the mid-range. But it’s also found in the aforementioned Lenovo mini desktops.

The Snapdragon X still offers an octa-core CPU like the Snapdragon X Plus octa-core processor, but lacks the 3GHz peak clock speed and single-core frequency boost. Conversely, even the least capable X Plus octa-core chip has a peak clock speed of 3.4 GHz.

The Snapdragon X and the lower-end X Plus chip otherwise share a few features, such as 30MB of cache, a 1.7 teraflop GPU, and a 45 TOPS AI-powered NPU. The latter means that your $600 laptops should still have the Copilot Plus designation.

What else should you know about Snapdragon X?

Other notable features include AV1 encoding/decoding, 4K HDR video capture, Bluetooth 5.4, Wi-Fi 7, additional 5G support via Snapdragon X65 modem, support for LPDDR5X RAM, and support for three external displays running at 4K/60Hz.

Qualcomm says that laptops with the Snapdragon X chip will be available in “early 2025,” specifically naming Dell and Lenovo as partners. So, if you want a more affordable Snapdragon laptop, you should keep an eye out for upcoming announcements.

So to speak, ourselves Snapdragon X Plus octa-core benchmarks Qualcomm’s less capable chip showed it could rival Apple’s older M2-powered MacBooks when it came to CPU performance, but Apple pulled ahead in GPU tests. So you shouldn’t be surprised if the new Snapdragon X lags a bit further, but laptops with this chip should still offer great battery life.