Windows 11's next major update is only coming to a few laptops – but that could be a blessing in disguise

Windows 11 26H1 confirmed for Snapdragon X2 laptops only – but with no new features, and I'm worried on the bug front

08 Jan 2026, 17:22 · TechRadar

News By Darren Allan published 8 January 2026

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Windows 11 26H1 is confirmed as being for Snapdragon X2 laptops only
That was always the likelihood, and Asus has let the truth slip, although we didn't get word directly from Microsoft
Version 26H1 won't have any new features – it will just work under the hood to pave the way for the X2 SoC – but one worry is bugs creeping in

Windows 11 26H1 has been confirmed to be exclusively for PCs with Arm processors – specifically Qualcomm Snapdragon chips – by a laptop manufacturer.

Windows Central reports that Asus has said its ZenBook A14 and A16 laptops, which have the new Snapdragon X2 inside, will ship with version 26H1 of Windows 11 installed around March or April. However, the ZenBook S14 and S16 notebooks emerging at around the same time which have AMD and Intel CPUs will run with Windows 11 25H2 (the current version of the OS).

Microsoft told us late last year that version 26H1 will include "platform changes to support specific silicon" and that it wasn't an update for 25H2, leading to speculation that it'd be a specific release just for Snapdragon laptops.

This is now effectively confirmed, though not directly by Microsoft yet, it should be noted.

What this means is that Windows 11 26H1 is being built specifically for these Arm PCs with underlying changes to support the new Snapdragon X2 processors from Qualcomm.

In other words, there are no new features with version 26H1, with not a sprinkling of AI in sight (ahem). There'll just be a bunch of tinkering under the hood – all stuff you won't actually see – to ensure that Snapdragon X2 chips run fine with Windows 11. It's all about ironing out wrinkles that may trip the X2 silicon up, as well as applying performance enhancements for these CPUs.

None of the contents of this update will be necessary for x86 CPUs (AMD and Intel), so they won't get 26H1. Instead, Microsoft will work on 26H2 and adding new features there, which all Windows 11 PCs – Arm, AMD, and Intel – will receive later this year (in the same timeframe that the big annual update is normally released, around September to October).

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