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The brighter immediate future for Snapdragon-powered PCs isn’t 5G-capable flagships like the Lenovo Flex 5G. They are Chromebooks.
Microsoft and Qualcomm have spent years positioning Snapdragon-powered laptops like the Flex 5G and Microsoft Surface Pro X as superior to their Intel-powered counterparts, with limited success. Windows software compatibility issues with Snapdragon’s ARM architecture make these laptops slow to use, a critical flaw given their often astronomical prices.
So, Qualcomm quietly shifted gears to move Snapdragon laptops away from their original premium flagship focus and place them on low-cost workhorses for schools and consumers who care more about price than performance. In late 2019, it introduced two lower-cost Snapdragon processors, the 8c and 7c, to complement the 8cx intended for flagships such as the Yoga 5G. Initially, it seemed that the change was not paying off, with only two obscure inexpensive 7c models, the JP.IK Turn T101 and Positivo Wise N1212S, scheduled for sale this year.
But then the coronavirus pandemic struck, causing laptop manufacturing and supply problems at a time when millions of students began to need new laptops to attend classes from home. Schools and students are the heart of the Chromebook market, and ARM-based processors from other chip companies, like MediaTek, have long powered cheaper Chromebooks. So why not change the Snapdragon 7c to Chromebooks?
Acer Chromebook Spin 513 (Image: Acer)
That’s what Qualcomm decided to do. The first Chromebook with 7c, the Acer Chromebook Spin 513, is scheduled to go on sale in February at a starting price of $ 400. It’s a sleek 2.64-pound ultraportable laptop with a 360-degree fold-down hinge. It’s not an outright bargain – the bottom of the Chromebook market is around half that price. But it will be the cheapest Snapdragon laptop by far, and it will still include details including a 14-hour battery life, a Gorilla Glass-coated panel, USB Type-C, and optional LTE connectivity.
Chromebooks don’t require a great deal of computing power, especially those intended for students, who typically do only one task at a time, such as taking a Zoom class or writing an essay. But it will still be interesting to compare a Snapdragon 7c model like the Spin 513 to the legions of MediaTek and Intel Pentium models currently on offer.
The Snapdragon 7c’s Kyro 468 compute unit has eight processing cores, compared to two cores in most Intel and MediaTek models. And unlike the painful process of transitioning Windows software to run on ARM chips, the Chrome operating system has been ARM-compliant from the start. Therefore, there will be no major software problems to overcome.
Through the pandemic and beyond
Qualcomm isn’t the only chipmaker focusing on Chromebooks right now. AMD also recently announced that it will bring its highly acclaimed Ryzen processors to Chromebooks. The fourth-generation Ryzen chips ended up eclipsing Snapdragon’s as the top alternatives to Intel’s Core CPUs in the premium Windows ultraportable laptop market this year. Now that Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, and MediaTek offer Chromebook processors, the market is likely to get a jolt of attention at a time when consumers need it most.
As for the Snapdragon flagships, Qualcomm and Microsoft aren’t completely abandoning their original plans for premium ultraportable laptops with always-on cellular connectivity. Microsoft is still working with application developers to improve ARM support. And once the pandemic is over, people will start traveling again. Models like the Flex 5G, with its flagship Snapdragon 8cx processor, and the latest version of the Surface Pro X, with its Snapdragon-derived SQ2, will be ready.
