Qualcomm shipped a redesigned Snapdragon Control Panel ahead of the X2 Elite laptop wave, which is a good excuse to look at what actually runs natively on these machines now. The X Elite launch a couple of years ago was rough on app support; the X2 launch does not have that excuse. Chrome, Office, Photoshop, Zoom, and Spotify are all native. The 100 most popular Windows applications either ship an ARM64 build or run through the Prism emulator without a visible hit.

We tested seven apps for a week on a Surface Laptop 7 running the X2 Elite Extreme, focused on ones that make the platform’s strengths (battery life, silent operation, always-on AI acceleration) visible. Ownership of the NPU cores is where the interesting differentiation lives now, so we weighted apps that use it.

What to look for in a Snapdragon-X-ready app

Quick comparison

App Best for ARM64 native Uses NPU Free tier
Snapdragon Control Panel System profiling and thermal control Yes N/A Free
Google Chrome for ARM Everyday browsing at full speed Yes Partial Free
Microsoft 365 for ARM Office work, Copilot on the NPU Yes Yes Subscription
Adobe Photoshop for ARM Photo editing with local AI fills Yes Yes Subscription
Zoom for ARM Video calls with NPU-based blur and transcription Yes Yes Freemium
Spotify for ARM Music streaming, negligible battery hit Yes No Freemium
DaVinci Resolve for ARM Video editing without cooling drama Yes Yes Freemium

The apps

1. Snapdragon Control Panel, best for seeing what the chip is actually doing

Snapdragon Control Panel is Qualcomm’s official utility for the X series. The redesigned build ships ahead of the X2 Elite launch and finally exposes per-core clock, NPU utilisation, thermal headroom, and battery projections in one window. Previous builds were fragmented across OEM tools; the new one is what you want pinned.

Where it falls short: Currently limited to Qualcomm-branded laptops. Some OEMs (notably Samsung and Lenovo) still push their own utilities that duplicate parts of this panel.

Pricing: Free.

Platforms: Windows on ARM only.

Download: Snapdragon Control Panel

Bottom line: Install it on day one. Every other app on this list looks better when you can see what the chip is doing.

2. Google Chrome for ARM, best baseline browser

Google Chrome ships a stable ARM64 build that runs at the same speed as x64 Chrome on Intel or AMD chips. The gains show up in battery: at similar browsing loads, the ARM build costs noticeably less than the emulated x64 build. Extensions and password managers work identically.

Where it falls short: Some enterprise MDM policies still ship x64-only extensions, which then fall back to Prism.

Pricing: Free.

Platforms: Windows on ARM.

Download: Google Chrome for ARM (pick the ARM64 installer during download)

Bottom line: The browser you already use, running the way the chip was designed for.

3. Microsoft 365 for ARM, best productivity suite

Microsoft 365 apps (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) are all first-class ARM64 builds. On X2 Elite, Copilot’s local models offload to the NPU for tasks like summarisation and rewriting, which keeps the CPU free and the fans off. The gap between ARM and x64 versions closed years ago.

Where it falls short: Some legacy VBA macros still trigger the x86 emulator for compatibility. Third-party Office add-ins are hit or miss.

Pricing: Subscription. Microsoft 365 Personal runs on all major consumer tiers.

Platforms: Windows on ARM (also on Mac, iOS, Android in separate builds).

Download: Microsoft 365

Bottom line: If you use Office, this is the reason Snapdragon X makes sense for productivity work.

4. Adobe Photoshop for ARM, best creative anchor

Adobe Photoshop shipped a native ARM64 build during the X Elite generation and rounded it out with Firefly Neural Filters running on the NPU. Generative Fill routes to the local model when available, so the wait time drops from the round-trip to Adobe’s cloud to a couple of seconds on-device.

Where it falls short: A handful of third-party filter plug-ins are still x64-only, forcing a Prism fallback. Camera Raw performance on ARM is close but not identical to Intel Core Ultra parity.

Pricing: Subscription. Photoshop is available standalone or as part of the Creative Cloud photo plans.

Platforms: Windows on ARM (also on Intel/AMD Windows, macOS).

Download: Adobe Photoshop

Bottom line: The reason creative professionals stopped writing off Snapdragon laptops.

5. Zoom for ARM, best video-call app

Zoom on ARM Windows uses the NPU for background blur, background replacement, noise suppression, and live captions. The old thermal problem (fans spinning up mid-call on x64) disappears on the X2. Meeting quality across a full workday costs a few percentage points of battery, not the double-digit hit x64 laptops still take.

Where it falls short: Some plug-ins (webinar integrations, third-party captioning) are still cloud-only or x64-only.

Pricing: Freemium. The free tier handles 1:1 calls of any length and group calls up to 40 minutes.

Platforms: Windows on ARM (all major consumer OSes have separate builds).

Download: Zoom for Windows

Bottom line: The most obvious NPU win on the machine. Blur is instant, battery lasts.

6. Spotify for ARM, best music app

Spotify shipped an ARM64 build in the first year of the X Elite platform. The gains are small in isolation but visible over a workday: a couple of percentage points of battery reclaimed when the app runs natively instead of through Prism.

Where it falls short: Feature parity with the x64 build is total, which is exactly what you want, but it also means nothing here is NPU-accelerated (audio quality is unchanged).

Pricing: Freemium. Premium removes ads and enables offline downloads.

Platforms: Windows on ARM (native builds on every major platform).

Download: Spotify

Bottom line: Set-and-forget. Runs in the background the way it should.

7. DaVinci Resolve for ARM, best video editor

DaVinci Resolve shipped a native ARM build during the last year that uses the NPU for facial tracking, magic mask, and speech-to-text. On the X2 Elite, timeline scrubbing on 4K clips is smooth without kicking the fans on, which was the specific pain point on the x64 emulated builds.

Where it falls short: Some Studio-only OpenCL plug-ins still expect a discrete GPU and won’t run against the Adreno integrated graphics. Fusion is functional but slower than Intel discrete-GPU laptops in the same price range.

Pricing: Freemium. The free version is enough for most editing work. Studio unlocks the neural-engine features and higher output resolutions.

Platforms: Windows on ARM (also Windows x64, macOS, Linux).

Download: DaVinci Resolve

Bottom line: The proof point that Snapdragon X laptops are usable for real video work in 2026.

How to pick the right ones

If you’re setting up a new Snapdragon X or X2 laptop, install these in order: Snapdragon Control Panel, then Chrome, then Microsoft 365. That gets you a productive machine before lunch.

Add Adobe Photoshop and DaVinci Resolve if creative work is the reason you picked this laptop. Add Zoom if calls are more than 20% of your day. Add Spotify because it’s a no-cost win.

Stay on your x64 laptop only if you rely on specialised enterprise software that hasn’t shipped an ARM build. The compatibility list from Qualcomm is now the smaller of the two “not yet native” lists, but check yours before switching platforms.

FAQ

Do all Windows apps run on Snapdragon X laptops?

Most of them. Native ARM64 apps run at full speed, and everything else runs through Prism, Microsoft’s x64-to-ARM emulator. About 93% of the apps typical users spend time in run natively as of 2026. The gaps are in specialised professional software and games with anti-cheat systems that don’t yet trust the ARM64 execution environment.

Are Snapdragon X laptops good for gaming?

Improving but not the strong point. Prism runs many older DirectX titles well. Newer AAA games with modern anti-cheat systems (BattlEye, Easy Anti-Cheat) still block Snapdragon systems, though both vendors have shipped ARM64 patches recently.

Which Adobe apps are native on Snapdragon X?

Photoshop, Lightroom, Illustrator, and Acrobat all ship native ARM64 builds. Premiere Pro and After Effects also have ARM builds, though a handful of third-party plug-ins still require Prism.

What is the Snapdragon Control Panel?

Qualcomm’s system utility for X-series laptops. It shows per-core clocks, NPU utilisation, thermal state, and battery projections, plus manages some driver settings. The redesigned 2026 version is what OEMs are shipping alongside X2 Elite laptops.

Do Snapdragon X laptops really get 20+ hours of battery?

The often-quoted figures are for light workloads (browsing, video, office work). Realistic all-day mixed use lands closer to 12 to 18 hours, which is still notably better than most Intel or AMD laptops in the same price band.