Qualcomm brought its Snapdragon X Series Southeast Asia Media Summit to Singapore, providing Southeast Asian industry insiders and media, including our team and colleagues from the Philippines, with an exclusive hands-on experience with the chipmaker’s latest Windows-on-ARM push.

The Qualcomm SEA summit, a regional debut, wasn’t solely focused on hardware and specifications. It offered a glimpse into the company’s AI-powered PC vision. Snapdragon X-powered machines were central, alongside discussions of market disruption, next-generation computing, and Qualcomm’s role in reshaping Southeast Asia’s PC landscape.

The Snapdragon Fireside Chat, featuring regional heads from ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, was a key summit highlight. The message was clear: Snapdragon X is here, it has significant implications for PC usage in work and entertainment, and it has the support of key industry players.

However, the summit wasn’t confined to boardroom discussions. Qualcomm curated two immersive hands-on zones, playfully dubbed “Creative” and “Beach,” to provide attendees with a real-world demonstration of the Snapdragon X processors’ capabilities. These zones showcased AI-boosted, NPU-driven workflows, highlighting seamless multitasking for professionals and the fluidity of multimedia editing for content creators. It was here that we truly grasped the platform’s potential to revolutionize how individuals work and express their creativity.

All about AI

Qualcomm started its SEA summit in Singapore with a couple of interesting facts that definitely piqued our curiosity: first, more than 8 million AI PCs shipped in Southeast Asia in 2024, and second, over 92% of APAC employees intend to use AI tools by 2028.

We also got a recap of the current Snapdragon X lineup, consisting of the top-end Elite, Plus, and the entry-level X. The latter aims for a $600, or roughly P34,734, starting price point — and potentially lower with promotions — which is notable. Each of these chips features a 45 trillion operations per second NPU. This substantial on-device AI power enables laptops to handle AI tasks directly, minimizing cloud reliance.

Notably, the Snapdragon X Elite, the flagship offering, is designed to execute large language models directly on the device. This capability is facilitated by software solutions like LM Studio, which effectively bypass the cloud-dependent architecture of services such as ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot. This approach addresses critical concerns related to latency and the recurring costs associated with subscription-based cloud services. Snapdragon X offers a compelling alternative, providing localized AI processing that is both efficient and (likely) more cost-effective.

Consider this familiar scenario: a long-haul flight at 35,000 feet with no Wi-Fi. With the Snapdragon X platform, users can still process research, generate summaries, and manage presentations, all through local AI. This is a significant productivity enhancement, especially in areas with limited connectivity.

Here’s another scenario that highlights the on-device capabilities of Snapdragon X-based machines: Imagine you’re a journalist in a remote location, covering a breaking news event. Internet connectivity is unreliable, and time is of the essence. You’ve gathered extensive interviews, raw footage, and a wealth of field notes. With Snapdragon X, you can immediately transcribe audio interviews using local LLMs, generate summaries of your findings, and even create a draft article based on your notes — all without relying on a stable internet connection.  

You can also use the on-device AI to analyze complex data sets, such as local economic indicators or demographic information, to provide crucial context for your reporting. This allows you to produce in-depth, nuanced stories in real time, even in challenging environments.  

The ability to process and analyze information locally, without the latency and security risks of cloud-based solutions, is a game-changer for professionals who require immediate access to AI tools, regardless of their location. For journalists, researchers, and anyone working in the field, Snapdragon X’s on-device LLM capabilities translate to increased efficiency, enhanced security, and the ability to produce high-quality work in any environment.

Software showcase

Of course, software plays a crucial role in all this. Within the “Creative” zone, Qualcomm demonstrated the Snapdragon X platform’s transformative power through two applications: djay Pro and Moises.

djay Pro showcased Snapdragon X’s real-time audio-manipulation capabilities, enabling users to instantly separate and remix track components during live performances. The software, driven by the NPU’s processing power, displayed the ability to instantly isolate and manipulate individual track components in a live performance simulation. The ability to deconstruct and reconstruct audio streams on the fly unlocks a new realm of creative possibilities, enabling users to instantly separate and remix track components during live performances. The software, driven by the NPU’s processing power, displayed the ability to instantly isolate and manipulate individual track components in a live performance simulation.

Moises, particularly its Moises Live feature, highlighted the processor’s transformative capabilities for musicians and producers. Exclusively available on Snapdragon X devices, Moises Live uses the chip’s AI to instantly separate vocals and instruments from any audio source, granting users a high level of audio control. Speed is a key advantage, with the chip’s AI processing tasks 35 times faster than the CPU, significantly reducing processing times.

Here's a live demo of Moises running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon-based laptop. Pretty awesome, really. #Qualcomm #SnapdragonXSeries #RevuDotComDotPH #SnapdragonSummitSEA pic.twitter.com/IMcJT7MzQr

— Monch Lopez (@MonchLopez) February 26, 2025

Live demo of Moises running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon-based laptop

Beyond these specific applications, the Snapdragon X platform seems poised to revolutionize the broader landscape of music production. Its accelerated audio processing capabilities could prove essential for live performances and studio recording, while its AI-driven tools have the potential to streamline production workflows and reduce associated costs.

Additionally, by enabling on-device AI processing, the platform enhances data security and minimizes latency, eliminating the need for constant cloud connectivity. Qualcomm clearly envisions Snapdragon X reshaping music creation, and djay Pro and Moises are showing how that can be done.

Flexibility and future devices

djay Pro and Moises serve as compelling examples of the performance advantages offered by applications running natively on ARM-based Snapdragon X processors However, a significant hurdle remains: software compatibility for applications lacking native support. Most of your favorite Windows apps? They’re not built for ARM. To bridge this gap, Qualcomm’s Windows-on-ARM strategy heavily leverages x86-64 emulation to fill the gaps.

While emulation provides a functional workaround, it is not without its limitations. You’re trading performance for compatibility, and your battery life will reflect that.

On the bright side, Qualcomm’s data suggests that over 90% of Snapdragon X device owners primarily run applications with native ARM support. Moreover, the company consistently emphasized, throughout the summit, its commitment to working with developers to expand native application availability on Snapdragon X platforms.

Gaming, however, poses a distinct challenge. The absence of dedicated graphics cards on Snapdragon X-based devices restricts the ability to deliver smooth gameplay for graphically intensive titles. Not to mention, the inherent power demands of gaming significantly compromise the Qualcomm’s core value proposition of efficient, all-day computing.

For now, Qualcomm’s focus seems to center around capable computing, leveraging on-device AI for improved performance and efficiency across diverse form factors.

Nevertheless, we were curious about where the chipmaker is headed with convertibles and tablets, so we asked Nitin Kumar, Qualcomm’s senior director for product management, straight up. He didn’t spill the beans on any upcoming models, but he did make a point about how flexible the platform is, basically saying you could stick this chip in just about anything. Pretty cool, right?

Qualcomm’s big bet

The Snapdragon X roadshow in Singapore made one thing abundantly clear: Qualcomm is pushing all its chips on a future where AI isn’t a distant cloud service, but a tangible, on-device reality.

The Snapdragon X, the chipmaker is telling us, isn’t just a processor; it’s a whole new way of thinking about PCs. Think less “cloud-dependent” and more “do-it-yourself,” even when you’re 35,000 feet up with no Wi-Fi. Qualcomm showed off DJay Pro slicing audio in real-time and Moises pulling vocals out of thin air, all running smooth as butter on ARM. It’s a glimpse of what’s possible when you ditch the latency and (expensive) online subscription.

And the company’s got the numbers to back it up: millions of AI PCs shipping and near-universal AI tool adoption on the horizon. That said, the next step is putting a Snapdragon X in everything. Laptops, tablets, who knows what else? The core idea — AI that lives on your machine, not somewhere in a server farm — that’s the real takeaway here. It’s a vision that could reshape how we work and create, and Qualcomm’s betting big it will be at the very forefront of the next PC revolution.

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