Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Dev Kit Featuring Top Snapdragon X Elite Chip Hits Retail At $899

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite Dev kits are now available featuring the top-tier chips and a retail price of $899 US.

Roughly two months ago, Qualcomm introduced a new Snapdragon Dev Kit, boasting the latest Snapdragon X Elite chipset for mini-PCs. The new mini-PC has been listed on Arrow for a price of $899. It is developed specially for next-gen AI application development on Windows for users who want a compact yet powerful solution using a Snapdragon processor. The launch follows the full unveiling of the first laptops last month.

The Dev kit currently hosts high-end hardware, which surpasses almost all the available 2-in-1s and laptops running on Snapdragon X processors. It uses the Snapdragon X Elite, model 'X1E-00-1DE', which is similar to the X1E-84-100 and is also its successor. The processor is currently the fastest in the Snapdragon X elite series, featuring 12 cores, a total cache memory of 42MB, a max multithread of 3.8GHz, and a dual-core boost of 4.3GHz.

Compared to the X1E-84-100, it has a 100MHz advantage, which should increase the performance of the dev kit by a small margin. The GPU and NPU specs remain identical, featuring a Qualcomm Adreno GPU offering up to 4.6 TFLOPS of theoretical performance and a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU with up to 45 TOPS.

Apart from a new processor, the Dev kit boasts quite an impressive configuration, offering 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 512GB of NVMe storage, all inside a small 8" x 7" x 1.3" enclosure that can sit anywhere on the desk without occupying much space. The mini PC weighs under 1kg and comes with Windows 11 pre-installed.

For connectivity, users will find all the basic ports, including 2x USB 3.2 Type-A, 3x USB4 Type-C for peripheral connection, 1x LAN for wired internet connectivity, 1x HDMI for display output, and a 3.5mm jack for audio devices. Nonetheless, users who love wireless connectivity will also get the latest built-in Wi-Fi 7 adapter and Bluetooth 5.4.

This new Snapdragon Dev Kit succeeds the Windows Dev Kit 2023 edition, which is powered by the 8-core Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 CPU. The X1E-00-1DE SKU is significantly superior, built on a 4nm process node, and features Qualcomm AI Engine to boost productivity.

The Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows on Arrow ships from the USA with a 1-year limited hardware warranty and can be purchased from most parts of the world.

News Source: Arrow