Qualcomm’s ‘Always On’ PCs are coming to T-Mobile and AT&T

By Jaina Grey Published February 20, 2018

Lenovo Miix 630 Review — Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Matt Smith/Digital Trends

Qualcomm’s forthcoming LTE-enabled PCs are coming to a new set of U.S. phone carriers, adding T-Mobile, and AT&T to a growing list of vendors. At CES, Qualcomm already confirmed Sprint and Verizon would be offering access to the new PCs, adding T-Mobile and AT&T to the list completes the set for Qualcomm. That means every major U.S. phone carrier will offer Qualcomm’s new ultra-mobile laptops as early as this year.

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“Consumers around the world will be able to experience firsthand how the Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Always Connected PC are designed to bring the best smartphone features to their PC,” Don McGuire, Qualcomm’s vice president of Global Product Marketing, said in a statement.

In addition to the new carriers, Qualcomm revealed a couple new retailers which will be offering the Always On PCs online and at brick-and-mortar locations nationwide. First up, the Always On PCs will be available on Amazon starting this calendar quarter and you will also be able to find them at physical Microsoft Stores.

“Our collaboration together with Microsoft has continued to build momentum for the Always Connected PC category,” McGuire continued. “With the growing list of commitments from leading mobile operators worldwide, Snapdragon-powered Always Connected PCs are engineered to offer consumers a compelling and powerful mobile computing experience, with instant-on capability, always-on connectivity and ‘beyond all-day’ battery life in innovative, thin and light designs.”

Qualcomm first announced its Always On PCs in late 2017, promising a new generation of laptop computing. Qualcomm touted the upcoming laptops, developed in partnership with Microsoft, as mobile workstations which behave more like smartphones than laptops. These new Always On, or Always Connected PCs all feature 24/7 LTE connectivity and due to their ultra-low-power Qualcomm processors, they’re set to feature battery life that could eclipse anything currently available in a standard laptop.

We’re still waiting for this new generation of laptops to hit store shelves, but recently Microsoft leaked a comprehensive list detailing precisely how they differ from their traditional laptop counterparts. Unfortunately, Microsoft was quick to backpedal and take down the leaked list of limitations, but if you’re curious about how Qualcomm’s PCs stack up to their competitors, we have the goods.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Jaina Grey is a Seattle-based journalist with over a decade of experience covering technology, coffee, gaming, and AI. Her…

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