Qualcomm has unveiled its newest and best cellular platform, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. The chipset will energy the following era of Android smartphones, more likely to make an look within the Samsung Galaxy S25 sequence, amongst others.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite additionally represents one more naming scheme shift for Qualcomm’s cellular line. Qualcomm turned the Snapdragon naming scheme on its head just a few years in the past with the “Snapdragon 8 Gen 1,” which was adopted by the 8 Gen 2, and eight Gen 3. Alas, it appears as if we received’t be getting a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.
No matter naming, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is Qualcomm’s strongest to this point. Qualcomm flew me out to its annual Snapdragon Summit to take a look at what’s new in individual.
Second-gen Oryon CPU
Qualcomm has engineered a second-gen iteration of the Oryon CPU for the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which Qualcomm says is the “quickest cellular CPU on this planet.” In response to the corporate, the Prime cores on the CPU on the Snapdragon 8 Elite provide 4.32GHz peak clock speeds, which can equate to a velocity enhance of a formidable 45%. That’s coupled with 27% general energy financial savings.
The 2 Prime cores on the Snapdragon 8 Elite are coupled with six efficiency cores, able to clock speeds of three.53GHz.
Over the previous decade or so, Apple’s A-series chips have been forward when it comes to fundamental CPU efficiency, however it appears as if that race is tightening up a bit.
AI first
In fact, fundamental CPU efficiency has been taking a little bit of a again seat over the previous few years, however the Snapdragon 8 Elite additionally provides enhancements in AI, as anticipated. It has an enhanced Qualcomm AI Engine with multimodal Gen AI help, which Qualcomm says leverages the Qualcomm Sensing Hub to higher perceive private context. And, it has a forty five% quicker neural processor.
Gadget producers, in fact, might want to implement AI options for themselves — however it’s useful that the processor is able to high-performance generative AI within the first place.
Graphics and gaming
As anticipated, the Snapdragon 8 Elite additionally has some graphics enhancements. Notably, it encompasses a new Qualcomm Adreno GPU, which encompasses a new sliced structure and devoted reminiscence for every slice. Qualcomm says this may allow AAA gaming by means of a 40% graphics enchancment and help for Unreal Engine 5.3
AAA gaming on cellular has began to achieve some traction, however it’s nonetheless as much as the builders to convey their video games to cellular platforms. To date, that hasn’t actually occurred. That stated, whether or not console video games come to cellular or not, improved graphics assist make cellular video games look higher and can allow higher mobile-first gaming.
Every part else
Different enhancements to the Snapdragon 8 Elite come within the type of ISP upgrades. The ISP on the chipset may be leveraged for AI efficiency, recognizing objects like faces, hair, clothes, objects, and backgrounds extra precisely.
Usually talking, the Snapdragon 8 Elite represents a strong improve for the Snapdragon sequence — which is sensible. Qualcomm has probably been feeling the necessity to show itself, given the truth that telephone makers have began constructing their very own chips. The perfect instance of that’s Google, which has been making its Tensor chips for Pixel telephones for a while now.
Regardless, we’ll begin to see telephones geared up with the Snapdragon 8 Elite within the subsequent few weeks from producers like ASUS, Honor, OnePlus, Samsung, and Xiaomi.
