Qualcomm has introduced the Snapdragon Dev Kit for Windows, a compact mini PC designed to simplify the development of next-generation Windows apps and AI experiences, but you can use it for any purpose you want and it's a perfect, affordable alternative to the Apple Mac Mini.
At the heart of the Snapdragon Dev Kit is a Snapdragon X Elite X1E-00-1DE chipset, which includes a Qualcomm Oryon CPU with 12 cores that can reach speeds of up to 3.8 GHz, along with dual-core boost capability of up to 4.3 GHz. The Adreno GPU delivers up to 4.6 TFLOPS and the Hexagon NPU up to 45 TOPS, accelerating AI/ML workloads and enabling local execution of LLM and LVM, reducing the need for cloud resources.
Running Windows 11, the development kit is equipped with 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 512GB of fast NVMe storage. It includes two USB 3.2 Type-A ports, three USB 4 ports, a full-size HDMI port, an RJ45 Ethernet connection, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The device supports the connection of up to three UHD monitors and can accommodate multiple drives in development and test environments. It also features the Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 mobile connectivity system, supporting Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
Cheaper than Surface Pro 11
The Snapdragon Development Kit is primarily intended to help developers build, debug, test, and port native Windows applications on Snapdragon, optimizing performance on CPU, GPU, and NPU. It uses the native Arm64 toolchain, including Visual Studio and VS Code, and supports scalable application development with Arm64 virtual machines and CI/CD infrastructure.
Priced at $899.99, the Snapdragon Dev Kit is the most affordable option in the Snapdragon X series. Checking the notebook Note: This price is lower than the Surface Pro 11, which starts at $989 and features the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 chipset with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage.
The Snapdragon Development Kit, which measures 199mm x 175mm x 35mm and weighs 970g, is available exclusively from Arrow. The device comes in black with a casing made from 20% recycled ocean plastic.
