Lenovo debuts a Snapdragon desktop PC that’s compact and affordable

When Qualcomm refuses to release Snapdragon developer kitthis seemingly dashed hopes for a Snapdragon X Elite-powered small form factor desktop. But don’t worry! Lenovo has unveiled its IdeaCentre Mini x, a tiny, cool desktop computer powered by Snapdragon X.

At CES 2025, Lenovo showed off the SFF desktop, priced at $659.99 and expected to ship in April. By the way, that’s a significant discount on Qualcomm’s $900 dev kit, which was discontinued in October 2024.

While Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X platform is used by about two dozen laptops, some are wondering whether desktop PCs will benefit from the chip’s low-power capabilities. Qualcomm execs teased Snapdragon desktopsand Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the company is targeting “mini desktops” – which is exactly what Lenovo’s new IdeaCentre is. It turns out that this is very similar to Chromebox except for the Snapdragon chip inside.

The IdeaCentre Mini x measures 7.68 x 7.52 x 1.68 inches, making it a small desktop device. Inside the new IdeaCentre Mini x is a Snapdragon X Plus or Snapdragon X chip; Unfortunately, Lenovo doesn’t say which one or how fast it will run. Lenovo will offer up to 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM (8488MHz) and up to 1TB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage, allowing you to create a small, compact PC with just a 150W power supply inside.

Otherwise, the IdeaCentre Mini x offers HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4a ports for connecting to an external display, Wi-Fi 7, and three USB-A ports (two of which are faster 10Gbps).

Think of the IdeaCentre Mini x as a compact desktop version of something like a Surface Laptop. While it doesn’t offer gaming capabilities, it should serve as a very nice and tidy office computer for everyday work.