Qualcomm's Computex event is all about AI. Is that a mistake?

Scrapbook style punk pop-art image of Cristiano Amon, chief executive officer of Qualcomm Inc., during the Computex conference in Taipei, Taiwan on a colorful background featuring the Qualcomm and Snapdragon logos.

(Image credit: Rael Hornby, photo by Annabelle Chih/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Qualcomm is gearing up for its big keynote presentation at Computex 2025, where AI will be the star of the show.

When the first Snapdragon-powered laptops debuted last year, many quickly impressed us with their affordability, solid performance, and fantastic battery life.

While AI was a significant facet, it wasn't the star feature that made Qualcomm laptops great. That begs the question: is AI the answer to Qualcomm's next generation? Or is its Computex keynote a sign that it's losing the plot?

See also: Best laptop deals May 2025

Qualcomm puts AI center-stage at Computex 2025, instead of this top feature

On Wednesday, Qualcomm announced in a press release that CEO Cristiano Amon will be giving a keynote presentation at Computex 2025. While the announcement doesn't give away much about what Qualcomm may show off during the presentation, one thing is abundantly clear: this is going to be a very AI-heavy keynote.

The press release states that Amon "will share insights on how AI is transforming PC experiences for consumers, enterprises, and in industrial sectors" and "demonstrate how on-device AI is poised to significantly enhance productivity, creativity, and much more."

Any discussion about hardware seems to be in retrospective to the success of Qualcomm's dive into the PC market last year with Copilot+ PCs. While new AI features are fine to showcase, they're not the star feature of Qualcomm-powered laptops, not by a long shot.

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 on a white table — The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is a perfect example of Qualcomm's fantastic battery life (Image credit: Stevie Bonifield)

Leading up to last year's Computex, there was a lot of excitement around Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips, which it claimed would be transformative for PCs. That claim wasn't unfounded, either. Snapdragon-powered laptops have delivered some incredible performance in the past year.

One great example is the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100, which broke Laptop Mag's battery life record with a time of 21 hours and 3 minutes.

That's genuinely jaw-dropping battery life. Only the M4 MacBook Pro comes anywhere close.

With battery life like that, Qualcomm could legitimately aim for 24-hour battery life in next-gen Snapdragon X Elite laptops. If battery life is your top priority, it's hard not to recommend a Snapdragon-powered laptop.

Of course, Qualcomm could still show off some new hardware and the AI features the keynote announcement mentions could include some battery life optimization.

However, if there's overwhelming emphasis on AI, it could be a mistake, in my opinion. Every tech company, including Qualcomm's competitors, is flooding their devices, platforms, and services with AI right now. It's become a buzzword, one that more and more consumers are losing enthusiasm for.

Qualcomm could stand out by focusing on something concrete, something every laptop user cares about, something Qualcomm laptops excel at: great battery life.

More from Laptop Mag

Stevie Bonifield is a freelance tech journalist who has written for PC Gamer, Tom's Guide, and Laptop Mag on everything from gaming to smartwatches. Outside of writing, Stevie loves indie games, TTRPGs, and building way too many custom keyboards.