For the past two years, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series has largely been confined to notebooks. The chips delivered impressive battery life and surprisingly competitive performance, but they never got the chance to challenge compact desktop machines like Apple’s Mac mini or even the more powerful Mac Studio. The Ascent QN10 changes that.

Packing the 18-core Snapdragon X2 Elite processor alongside Qualcomm’s integrated Adreno GPU, the tiny desktop also becomes the world’s first mini PC to offer 80 TOPS of AI performance through its dedicated Hexagon NPU. So, ASUS is introducing a new form factor for Qualcomm’s most powerful PC silicon.

The desktop debut Snapdragon needed

The most interesting thing about the Ascent QN10 is the fact that Qualcomm’s flagship PC chip has finally made its way into a desktop. Until now, comparing Snapdragon-powered systems to Apple’s Mac mini has always felt slightly unfair. One sat inside a laptop chassis with battery constraints, while the other was a dedicated desktop built for sustained performance. The QN10 brings Qualcomm into that conversation.

ASUS says the system combines the X2 Elite’s 18-core CPU with up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory running at 9600MHz, promising a balance of performance and efficiency while maintaining cool, quiet operation. That’s the same pitch Apple has successfully used for years with the Mac mini: serious performance without the noise and heat of traditional desktop PCs. Whether the QN10 can truly compete with Apple’s compact desktops remains to be seen, but for the first time, Qualcomm finally has the hardware platform to make that comparison meaningful.

The chip leaves the nest

Of course, ASUS and Qualcomm are leaning heavily into AI. At Microsoft Build, the companies demonstrated the QN10 running developer tools such as Visual Studio Code and GitHub Copilot while processing AI-assisted workflows locally. Another demonstration showed the machine running private large language models using LLMWare and AnythingLLM without relying on cloud servers.

That’s where the 80 TOPS NPU comes into play. Instead of sending data to external servers, developers can run AI workloads directly on the machine, which offers advantages in privacy, security, and responsiveness. The QN10 also supports Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC experiences, making it one of the first desktop-focused systems built around Microsoft’s growing AI ecosystem.

Still, the biggest takeaway from ASUS’ announcement is that the Snapdragon X2 Elite has finally escaped the laptop category. And if Qualcomm wants Windows on Arm to be taken seriously as a long-term alternative to Apple’s silicon strategy, a compact desktop like the Ascent QN10 is exactly the kind of product it needed to build.

Asus’ V700 Mini Tower, announced at Computex 2026 gives the home desktop a rare design win. The new mini desktop keeps the practical shape of a tower PC, but swaps the usual cold box look for clean lines, soft contours, and a wood-grain finish meant to sit where people can actually see it.

That visual shift does real work. A mini desktop doesn’t have to be hidden under a desk, tucked behind a monitor, or parked beside a router because it looks too harsh for the room. Asus introduced the V700 Mini Tower as part of its Computex 2026 AI PC lineup, and the warmer design is the detail that gives it a sharper identity.

Price, release date, and regional availability weren’t listed for the V700 Mini Tower.

Why should power look this sterile

Asus didn’t use the warmer shell as an excuse to go basic. The V700 Mini Tower can be configured with up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, DDR5 memory, and up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage.

Optional Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 Series graphics give it more reach than a simple household PC. Asus frames the machine for productivity, entertainment, and creative workloads, which helps the wood-grain design feel less like decoration and more like a serious desktop with better manners.

How does wood grain change the room

The finish changes where this PC can reasonably live. It looks better suited to a media console, shared desk, or open home office than a conventional tower covered in vents, gloss plastic, or office-gray panels.

That’s where the trend gets interesting. Speakers, consoles, routers, and smart displays have already moved toward softer, more decor-friendly designs. Desktop PCs have been slower to catch up, even as more people use them in visible spaces that double as work zones, family rooms, and entertainment setups.

What would prove this trend is real

The V700 Mini Tower needs more than a good Computex showing to make the design stick. Asus has to ship it broadly, price it sensibly, and avoid treating the wood-grain finish like a one-off flourish for a single model.

The next step is straightforward. Make warmer desktop finishes normal options across more PCs, not limited-edition styling experiments. If desktops are going to stay in the home, they should stop forcing the home to work around them.

The battle for premium TV buyers has largely revolved around two technologies in recent years: OLED and Mini LED. OLED has earned a reputation for delivering exceptional contrast and viewing angles, while Mini LED has pushed brightness levels to new heights. The tradeoff has often been deciding which compromise makes more sense for your room and viewing habits.

Sony believes that conversation may be about to change. During a private media briefing in New York City, the company unveiled a new display technology called True RGB, which rethinks how a TV backlight works and aims to combine some of the biggest strengths of both OLED and Mini LED.

Sony says most TVs are designed for the wrong environment

One of the more interesting points Sony made during the briefing had little to do with specifications. According to the company, only 13% of viewers watch television in the kind of pitch black environment often used for product demonstrations, movie theaters, or professional color grading suites. The remaining 87% are watching in living rooms, family rooms, and spaces where lighting conditions constantly change.

Sony’s argument is that many premium displays still struggle to balance brightness, color accuracy, and contrast once they move outside ideal conditions. That is the problem the company says True RGB is designed to solve.

What makes True RGB different?

To understand why Sony believes this technology is important, it helps to look at how most premium TVs currently create color.

In a traditional Mini LED or QLED display, a blue or white light source works alongside quantum dots, phosphor layers, and LCD structures to create the colors that eventually appear on screen. In simple terms, much of the color creation process happens after the light leaves the backlight itself.

True RGB takes a different approach. Instead of relying on a single color light source that is later filtered, Sony uses independently controlled red, green, and blue diodes directly within the backlight system. That means the desired color is created at the light source before it even reaches the LCD layer.

To make this possible, Sony’s professional monitor engineers worked alongside the BRAVIA consumer team to develop a new RGB Backlight Master Drive. According to Sony, the updated driver architecture allows individual control of millions of microscopic red, green, and blue diodes in real time.

The biggest improvement may be color volume

Sony set up a series of side by side demonstrations comparing True RGB against competing flagship displays, including tests using both 100% and 90% raster windows. While several differences were highlighted, color volume stood out as one of the most significant.

The key difference is that True RGB generates pure red, green, and blue light directly at the source rather than relying on a single backlight color that is later filtered through the display. Sony says this allows the system to produce significantly greater color expression while maintaining high brightness levels. According to the company, True RGB delivers twice the color volume of the BRAVIA 9 Mini LED and up to four times the color volume of the BRAVIA 8 OLED.

The result is a display that can become extremely bright while maintaining color saturation rather than washing colors out at higher brightness levels.

Viewing angles were another area Sony focused on

Viewing angles have traditionally been one of OLED’s biggest advantages. Mini LED displays can lose some color accuracy when viewed from the side because much of the color generation happens through the LCD structure.

Sony argues that True RGB helps address that issue because color is being created through both the LED layer and the LCD layer rather than relying on a single stage of the display pipeline. During the demonstrations, the company showed side by side comparisons where colors appeared more consistent when viewed from extreme angles.

Smooth gradation is designed to eliminate visible banding

The third major benefit Sony highlighted was gradation performance. Color banding can become noticeable in skies, sunsets, and other scenes with subtle color transitions, particularly on bright displays.

By combining its image processing technologies with independent control of the red, green, and blue backlight system, Sony says True RGB significantly reduces visible banding and creates smoother transitions between shades.

True RGB is coming to Sony’s flagship TVs first

The first True RGB model will sit at the top of Sony’s lineup as the BRAVIA 9 II. The flagship model will be available in 65, 75, 85, and 115 inch sizes and will feature technologies including RGB Backlight Master Drive Pro and Luminance Booster Pro. Sony says the TV is engineered to match the creative intent and brightness performance of its professional BVM studio monitors.

The technology will not be limited to the flagship tier. Sony also announced the BRAVIA 7 II, which brings True RGB to a broader range of screen sizes spanning from 50 inches to 98 inches. Below those models will sit the company’s OLED lineup, led by the BRAVIA 8 II and the standard BRAVIA 8.

Sony is also tackling reflections

Alongside True RGB, Sony introduced an optional premium anti glare technology called Immersive Black Screen Pro for the BRAVIA 9 II. The company says the patent pending nanostructure layer is designed to absorb reflections while maintaining deep black levels, even in brightly lit rooms.

That focus on real world viewing conditions ties back to the broader argument Sony made throughout the briefing. Rather than optimizing displays solely for ideal environments, the company is positioning True RGB as a technology built around the way most people actually watch television at home.

After seeing the demonstrations firsthand, it is easy to understand why Sony believes True RGB could become the next major step in premium display technology. Whether it ultimately lives up to that promise will have to wait for final retail units, but Sony is clearly betting that the future of TV performance lies somewhere between what OLED and Mini LED currently offer.