Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line cellular chip is getting a brand new identify. However the newly unveiled Snapdragon 8 Elite provides extra than simply floor adjustments because it’s constructed on a 3-nanometer course of, encompasses a new CPU and guarantees loads of neural processing to deal with new on-device AI options.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite ought to energy the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S25 collection and all the greatest Android telephones for the approaching 12 months.
Qualcomm confirmed off the Snapdragon 8 Elite at present (October 21), speaking up its many upgrades throughout the chip maker’s annual Snapdragon Summit. And these are adjustments you are going to need to find out about should you’re curious about upgrading to a brand new Android telephone — and the way it would possibly problem Apple’s iPhone 16 lineup.
Here is what we all know in regards to the Snapdragon 8 Elite based mostly on Qualcomm’s preview and what it probably means for telephones powered by the brand new chipset.
What units will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite
We cannot have to attend lengthy to see telephones that function this new system-on-chip. Qualcomm listed 9 telephone makers dedicated to that includes the Snapdragon 8 Elite and mentioned these firms “are poised to launch units powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, within the coming weeks.”
Notably, Samsung and OnePlus are included within the listing of firms pledging to function the Snapdragon 8 Elite together with Asus, Xiaomi, Honor, Oppo and various different machine makers who primarily do enterprise in China. Whereas no particular fashions have been talked about — these form of bulletins are typically left to telephone makers — it is extra proof that we’ll see the Snapdragon 8 Elite in a minimum of a few of Samsung’s Galaxy S25 fashions in addition to the OnePlus 13.
The OnePlus 13 is tipped to launch in China first in October 31 however the launch date is just not but identified. Equally, we’re anticipating Samsung to host its Galaxy S25 launch occasion in January, at which period we’ll see if the Snapdragon 8 Elite powers simply the Galaxy S25 Extremely globally or whether or not it is featured in different S25 fashions outdoors of North America.
We already know a number of the telephones that can function the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Asus plans to disclose the ROG Cellphone 9 with the brand new chipset in November whereas the Honor Magic 7 will even use Qualcomm’s newest chipset; the latter telephone debuts on October 30, and it’ll introduce the Honor AI Agent that makes use of textual content and voice prompts to carry out actions in your behalf comparable to putting to-go orders or guide tickets.
Xiaomi’s Adam Zeng appeared on the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii to introduced that the Xiaomi 15 collection could be “first smartphone powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite globally,” although it is unclear if globally consists of the U.S., the place Xiaomi sometimes doesn’t launch telephones.
Snapdragon 8 Elite efficiency
We have excellent news should you’re in search of a cellular powerhouse.
Like Apple’s A18 silicon, the Snapdragon 8 Elite will probably be constructed on a 3nm course of, an enchancment over the 4nm course of that the present Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 makes use of. The smaller the method, the nearer transistors are packed collectively, bettering each efficiency and energy effectivity. Contemplating the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 wasn’t precisely a shrinking violet in both division, that bodes nicely for the velocity and battery lifetime of Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered units.
Qualcomm has made one other change to its chipset. As had been introduced previous to at present’s unveiling, the Kryo CPU used on earlier Snapdragon 8 chipsets is giving technique to a model of Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU personalized for cellular. Oryon is the CPU featured in Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite silicon for related computing, and Qualcomm says that utilizing a second-generation model of that chip will optimize looking, gaming and different experiences on cellular units.
The Oryon CPU used for the Snapdragon 8 Elite introduces a model new structure with two prime cores operating at 4.3GHz and 6 efficiency cores, that are designed to deal with intensive duties whereas maximizing energy effectivity. Qualcomm is dropping effectivity cores from this model of Oryon, persevering with a pattern of utilizing fewer effectivity cores in its CPUs.
The microarchitecture additionally introduces a knowledge pre-fetcher which Qualcomm says can increase efficiency. It helps an Prompt Wake function that basically eliminates the wake-up sequence so {that a} core can get proper to the duty at hand.
When it comes to efficiency, Qualcomm says to count on 45% enhancements in each single-core and multicore duties over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, with net looking dashing up by 62%. On the identical time, CPU energy effectivity ought to enhance by 44% with the Oryon CPU.
Qualcomm shared some benchmarks for the Snapdragon 8 Elite, during which a reference machine powered by the chipset averaged single and multicore scores of three,221 and 10,426 on Geekbench 6. We’ll have an opportunity to run some checks on the Snapdragon 8 Elite later this week, so we are able to confirm these numbers, but when they show correct, they’re going to simply the highest the two,300 single-core and seven,249 multicore numbers we bought when testing the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered Galaxy S24 Extremely.
The one-core rating of the Snapdragon 8 Elite could be on par with the iPhone 16 Professional Max’s 3,386 end result. However the multicore quantity would greatest the iPhone 16 Professional Max rating by 26%. Prepare for the iPhone vs. Android debate to reignite.
In a very eye-opening second throughout the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s launch, Qualcomm CEO famous that the cellular chip delivers 62% sooner efficiency than Intel’s just-released Lunar Lake chipset for laptops; the cellular chipset additionally consumes much less energy than its laptop-based rival, in accordance with Qualcomm’s figures.
Snapdragon 8 Elite graphics
The Oryon CPU is not the one a part of the system-on-chip seeing adjustments. The Snapdragon 8 Elite’s Adreno GPU is getting a lift, too, with a brand new sliced structure that dedicates reminiscence for every slice, which ought to end in sooner and smoother gameplay that lasts longer because of battery life enhancements. In actual fact, Qualcomm is promising that gaming periods can final 2.5 hours longer on Snapdragon 8 Elite machine because of the GPu enhancements.
The sliced structure also needs to help extra cinematic and detailed landscapes, persevering with to ascertain cellular units as a formidable gaming platform.
Latest Adreno GPUs on Qualcomm’s cellular chipsets have centered on ray-tracing help, and that continues with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Qualcomm guarantees a 35% enchancment in ray-tracing. In the meantime, the Snapdragon 8 Elite brings cellular help for Unreal Engine 5.3 with Nanite, elevating the opportunity of extra immersive 3-D environments for video games on cellular. Qualcomm additionally optimized help for Unreal Chaos Physics Engine with its GPU.
All instructed, Qualcomm expects a 40% enchancment in efficiency from the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s Adreno GPU, in comparison with final 12 months’s silicon. Energy effectivity ought to enhance by 40% for the GPU. Based on Qualcomm’s benchmarks, the Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered reference machine posted a mean rating of 159 frames per second on the 3DMark Wild Life Limitless take a look at, which might be a 28% enchancment over what we noticed from the Galaxy S24 Extremely. It additionally widens the hole with iPhones, because the A18 Professional-powered iPhone 16 Professional Max solely hit 107.5 fps on that very same take a look at.
Snapdragon 8 Elite AI
Each premium telephone price its price ticket as of late desires to ship AI-powered options — particularly if they are often dealt with on the machine itself. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is making its pitch to fulfill this demand by integrating multimodal generative AI purposes for help on-device experiences. And it plans to do that whereas defending your privateness and lowering latency.
That requires a brand new structure for the AI engine on the Snapdragon silicon aided by the Oryon CPU, which not on-device processes latency-critical AI duties, however initiates AI workloads. As a Qualcomm govt places it, Oryon is doing the heavy lifting whereas different elements of the neural engine tackle AI-specific duties.
Based on Qualcomm, the tip end result ought to increase the neural processing unit’s velocity by 45% over final 12 months’s model. Moreover, Qualcomm added colours to each the scaler and vector accelerators to deal with the calls for of generative AI.
Considerably, the Snapdragon 8 Elite helps the next capability of tokens, that means customers can provide the AI assistant on board their telephone wither bigger information to course of. And the Qualcomm Sensing Hub has been improved to raised perceive your private context for extra customized output in your queries.
In demos throughout the Snapdragon Summit keynote, the corporate confirmed off a state of affairs the place you can snap {a photograph} of the invoice at a restaurant and ask a digital assistant in your telephone to separate the tab. In one other instance of multi-modal smarts, the assistant was capable of establish the flowers utilized in a lei simply from a digital camera view. (That demo featured a pair of AR glasses, one other product the place Qualcomm provides chips.)
Qualcomm’s bulletins in regards to the AI capabilities of Android telephones powered by Snapdragon comes as Apple is about to launch its Apple Intelligence options to pick iPhones and different units through a software program replace. Apple is attempting to play catch-up with firms like Google and Samsung — a current report mentioned that Apple is 2 years behind the leaders in AI — and the advances coming to the Snapdragon 8 Elite figures to maintain Android units forward of the iPhone nicely into subsequent 12 months.
Snapdragon 8 Elite picture processing
It is also price paying attention to the adjustments launched to the picture sign processor on board the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Qualcomm up to date the Hexagon Direct Hyperlink between the redesigned AI ISP and neural engine to convey AI enhancements to pictures. These options embrace utilizing AI to increase the borders of a photograph past its body, sharper decision and readability for pictures and enhance AI segmentation to establish particular person objects and improve them. Particular to that final function, Qualcomm’s chipset can section a picture into greater than 250 layers, optimizing each for extra pure pores and skin tones, sharper-looking skies and extra.
Along with AI-enhanced autofocus, auto white steadiness and auto publicity, pixel throughput has elevated by 35% to 4.3 gigapixel per second. That enables the Snapdragon 8 Elite to document from three 48MP sensors concurrently at 30 fps.
The AI ISP brings Magic Editor-style eraser capabilities to video, in which you’ll be able to flip to the Video Object Eraser to take away undesirable objects out of your video footage, with the enhancing happening fully on machine as a substitute of getting you add your footage to the cloud for processing. Moreover, the up to date chipset will help low-light video seize at 4K/60fps resolutions.
The neural engine has a extra direct hyperlink to photographs captured by the AI ISP on the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which ought to enable for AI changes and enhancements in actual time. A great instance of this function concerned a demo that includes somebody photographing a canine, an animal unlikely to pose for {a photograph}. The Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered machine takes a burst of pictures that includes the canine, selecting the right of the bunch; it additionally applies enhancements to name out particulars within the shot just like the canine’s fur.
Different Snapdragon 8 Elite enhancements
There are a number of different Snapdragon 8 Elite capabilities price paying attention to. The brand new chipset consists of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System for improved connectivity, and it integrates Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and UWB to assist with location proximity. There’s Wi-Fi 7 help via Qualcomm’s FastConnect 7900 Cellular Connectivity System.
