Qualcomm is chasing Apple's MacBook Neo with a $300 Windows laptop chip, but it picked a terrible time to go bargain hunting. The Snapdragon C platform, announced at Computex 2026, targets entry-tier laptops starting at roughly $300. That's half the price of Apple's $599 MacBook Neo and a dramatic drop from Qualcomm's own Snapdragon X laptops, which started at $1,000 and only recently dipped to $600. The problem: memory prices have more than quadrupled since last year. Gartner research director Ranjit Atwal told The Register that vendors are losing the ability to build PCs below $500.
Gartner also predicts PC prices will rise 17% this year.
Qualcomm is betting it can beat those headwinds with a chip built from phone-grade components. The Snapdragon C uses Kryo CPU cores from Qualcomm's smartphone lineup rather than the custom Oryon cores powering its higher-end Snapdragon X chips, The Verge reports.
It's the same playbook Apple used for the MacBook Neo, which runs on the A18 Pro chip from the iPhone 16 Pro series. The platform includes an integrated NPU for local AI processing, but it won't meet Microsoft's Copilot+ PC requirements. Qualcomm confirmed the chip "is not built to scale up to the Copilot+ requirements," per The Register.
Acer is the first partner out of the gate with the Aspire Go 15 AG15-Q31P, a 15.6-inch 1080p laptop. The specs tell the cost-cutting story: up to 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, two USB-C ports, a USB-A port, HDMI 1.4, Wi-Fi 6E, a 1080p webcam, and a 53Wh battery.
Acer isn't sharing pricing or a release date yet. The 8GB RAM ceiling is the biggest warning sign. CNET's Lori Grunin notes that's barely enough to run Windows, and even the MacBook Neo struggles with 8GB on the more efficient macOS. The Aspire Go also uses a plastic shell, par for the course at this price tier.
HP and Lenovo are also signed on as launch partners, though neither had models ready to announce. Qualcomm senior director Mandar Deshpande said laptops will hit shelves "later this year."
Deshpande acknowledged the memory crunch but argued there's still momentum in lower price points. "Everyone is interested in buying laptops at this price," he said.
Qualcomm plans to share full Snapdragon C specs during its Computex 2026 keynote next week.
