Microsoft Moves Surface Laptop to ARM with Snapdragon X, First Mainstream Shift Since 1990s x86 Transition

Microsoft's Surface Laptop 7th Edition uses Qualcomm's Snapdragon X processors—marking the company's most substantial CPU architecture change since abandoning PowerPC for x86 in the early 1990s. The 13.8-inch model ships with Snapdragon X Plus; the 15-inch uses X Elite. Both include Qualcomm's 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU. ARM-based Windows systems existed before, but this is the first explicitly designed for mainstream productivity and development workflows.