Qualcomm just announced the Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows mini-PC to encourage developers to build more Arm-native apps for Windows 11. This comes shortly after several laptop makers launched Windows 11 laptops powered by Snapdragon X chips. Although these new chips offer better performance and battery life than top Intel and AMD laptop processors, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chip use the Arm architecture, which requires emulation to run x86 apps that many Windows PCs use.
According to Qualcomm’s product brief, a Snapdragon X Elite SoC powers this mini-PC, which boasts a 12-core 3.8-GHz Oryon CPU, an Adreno GPU, and a Hexagon NPU that can run up to 4.5 TOPS. It also has 32GB LPDDR5x RAM and a 512GB NVMe SSD. This small computer measures 8 x 7 x 1.3 inches, which puts it close enough to the size of a Mac mini. It also has a 3.5mm audio jack, three USB 4 Type-C, two USB 3.2 Type-A, an RJ45 ethernet, and an HDMI port — similar to what Apple offers in the M2 Mac mini.
However, this isn’t the first time that we received an Arm-powered Windows dev kit. Microsoft launched Project Volterra just last year: a developer box powered by the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 compute platform. Qualcomm also released a Snapdragon Develop Kit in 2021 to get more developers on board to build apps for Windows 10 on Arm.
Despite these efforts, Arm-powered Windows PCs still hasn’t reached mainstream success, unlike Apple which has completely transitioned to its own silicon in 2023. However, this is likely because of the lack of viable offerings from laptop makers. This could change this year, especially as many manufacturers, like Acer, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, have launched multiple models simultaneously. We even have an early review of Microsoft’s Snapdragon X Elite-powered Surface laptop by Signal65, which shows exceptional power and efficiency.
And while Signal65’s review showed a marked improvement with Microsoft’s new Prism translation layer, you will still sacrifice some performance if you don’t run apps natively. If the new Snapdragon X-powered devices turn out as successful as Apple-silicon powered laptops and desktops, many developers will be encouraged to create native versions of their x86 apps for these systems or even build programs that can only be run on Arm.
Nevertheless, you do not have to be a programmer to get the Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows mini-PC. If you’re on the market for a desktop PC that doesn’t take up much space and want to be on the cutting edge of technology, you’re also free to purchase this device. According to Videocardz, the Qualcomm mini-PC will launch on June 18 for $899 — a great price considering all other recently-launched Snapdragon X-powered laptops go for $1,099 and up.
