News
Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon X2 Elite & Extreme For Windows PCs
Qualcomm’s new chipsets bring faster CPUs, stronger GPUs, and upgraded AI, with the first laptops expected in early 2026.
Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme, the second generation of its Windows-on-Arm chip designed to challenge Intel and AMD in the PC market. Qualcomm is marketing them as “the fastest and most efficient” processors for Windows laptops, though rivals are likely to dispute that claim.
Built on a 3nm process, the X2 line offers up to 31 percent faster CPU performance than the first-generation Snapdragon X Elite at the same power, or up to 43 percent less power use. GPU performance per watt has improved 2.3 times, thanks to a new 1.85GHz GPU. The chips feature Qualcomm’s third-generation Oryon CPU, with up to 18 cores: 12 cores running at up to 4.4GHz, and two cores capable of reaching 5GHz. Qualcomm says this clockspeed is a first for Arm CPUs.
AI performance has also been scaled up. A new Hexagon NPU delivers 80 TOPS, offering 37 percent more performance at 16 percent lower power draw. Qualcomm claims it is the fastest laptop NPU available today. Other upgrades include 18MB of high-speed cache, branded Adreno High Performance Memory, intended to improve gaming performance, which lagged in the first generation.
The company is pitching the Extreme variant as delivering “up to 75 percent faster CPU performance” compared with high-end chips like Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285H and AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. The comparisons, however, come with caveats: Qualcomm has not published fully labeled graphs, and its testing shows the Extreme drawing over 50W of power, suggesting it will scale into larger laptops beyond thin-and-light designs.
Also Read: Abu Dhabi And NVIDIA Launch First Joint AI And Robotics Lab
Qualcomm claims efficiency gains could extend battery life beyond a single workday, though last year’s X Elite machines generally managed 14-18 hours per charge. Creative software performance is another focus: Adobe benchmarks suggest 28 percent faster Photoshop edits, 43 percent faster Lightroom exports, and similar boosts in Premiere.
Meanwhile, Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan also announced Synapse software support for Snapdragon Windows laptops, though he stopped short of confirming a Snapdragon-based gaming machine.
The first laptops powered by Snapdragon X2 Elite and Extreme are expected in the first half of 2026.
News
Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power
Egypt’s telecom regulator says $57.6 billion moved through more than 57 million wallets in six months. And one operator handled 77% of the value.
Egypt’s mobile wallets handled EGP 2.96 trillion ($57.6 billion) in transactions in the first half of 2026, according to the National Telecom Regulatory Authority – a 56% rise on the EGP 1.90 trillion ($36.9 billion) recorded a year earlier. Transactions grew faster still, up 62% to 2.22 billion, while registered wallets climbed 23% to 57.01 million.
On one reading, that is exactly what Egypt’s regulators have been pushing for: a payments system that runs through telecom-linked wallets rather than banknotes. But the same data shows how far cash still reaches into it. Cash withdrawals made up just 12% of the transactions taking money out of wallets, yet 75% of the value withdrawn or spent.
Money arrives mostly from bank accounts: transfers through InstaPay accounted for 78% of deposit transactions and 58% of the value deposited, while incoming remittances from abroad made up 3% of deposit transactions but 10% of their value. Once inside, it largely moves between wallets – wallet-to-wallet transfers accounted for 54% of all transactions and 67% of total value, with mobile and internet top-ups a distant second at 25% of volume. In effect, the wallet is serving as a transfer layer: the place money passes through between the bank account and the banknote.
That layer also runs predominantly through one operator. Vodafone Cash held 53% of registered wallets and 57% of active ones, but handled 69% of transactions and 77% of their value. Its nearest rival, e& money, held 23% of registered wallets but 14% of transaction value; Orange Cash 20% and 8%; WE Pay 4% of wallets. How many of the 57.01 million are active is not stated.
Also Read: Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Adoption is rather uneven in other respects. Men held 38 million wallets, or 67% of the total, against 19 million held by women. Users aged 26 to 45 accounted for half of all wallets, and Cairo alone had 10.6 million, or 19% of the national total, with Giza next at 6.5 million.
The NTRA says it is continuing to work with telecom operators on the regulatory framework for wallet services, part of a wider effort to expand electronic payments and financial inclusion. Its own figures show that effort succeeding on the way in. On the way out, three-quarters of the value still leaves as cash.
Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power
Apple’s First Folding iPhone Arrives Late To A Shrinking Market
Apple’s Latest Product Releases Make The Headlines
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
RØDE’s New DS3 Studio Arm Is Built For Heavier Creator Setups
Anghami’s New Elite Program Starts With A Three-Decade Catalog
Dubai’s aradus Wants AI To Run The Back Office Of Physical Trade
Qatar Is Getting Its First EV Plant, Built To Cope With Gulf Heat
Qatar Airways Flies The World’s First Starlink-Equipped 787-9
Former Rockstar Director Dismisses GTA 6 Leaks As “Nothing Burger”
-
News3 weeks agoFormer Rockstar Director Dismisses GTA 6 Leaks As “Nothing Burger”
-
News3 weeks agoRØDE’s New DS3 Studio Arm Is Built For Heavier Creator Setups
-
News3 weeks agoDubai Turns AI On Its Own Civil Service To Measure Productivity
-
News3 weeks agoVisa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon