Samsung developing its own Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PC

Samsung is no stranger to developing Windows PCs but its latest product is going to be a bit different in that it’s going to be powered by a Qualcomm processor. The company confirmed alongside Qualcomm at Computex 2018 today that it’s going to build its very own Snapdragon-powered Windows PC and will thus join Microsoft’s “Always Connected PC” ecosystem.

Microsoft and Qualcomm brought Windows 10 to the Snapdragon 835 last year to enable OEMs to build PCs that were always connected with Gigabit LTE connectivity. The idea was to create a new family of ARM-based PCs that were thin, lightweight, offered extended battery life and was LTE compatible. Qualcomm today announced a new chipset for ARM PCs to address the shortcomings of the Snapdragon 835 and Samsung will use it for its new device.

Samsung’s Snapdragon 850 PC

Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon 850 Mobile Compute Platform for Windows 10 on ARM devices. The 10nm chip features Qualcomm’s Kryo 385 CPU, Snapdragon X20 LTE modem, Hexagon 685 Vector processor, Adreno 630 Visual processing system, Spectra 280 Image Signal Processor and an AI engine.

The company says that compared to its predecessor, the new platform provides an up to 30 percent system-wide increase in performance and up to 3X AI performance aside from up to 1.2 gigabits per second LTE connectivity speeds and a possible battery life of up to 25 hours of continuous usage.

It was also confirmed during the press event today that Samsung is going to be the first OEM that gets to use the Snapdragon 850 mobile platform. The company will use the chip for its upcoming always connected PC which is said to be due later this year.

No further details have been revealed about Samsung’s product at this point in time so it’s unclear what form factor it will adopt. There’s a possibility that this device may be a 2-in-1 hybrid.