Qualcomm has announced its next flagship mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, replacing the anticipated “Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.” This shift marks another evolution in Qualcomm’s naming scheme following the discontinuation of its three-digit series. The Snapdragon 8 Elite shares its name with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite PC chip, highlighting key similarities between the two, particularly in CPU architecture.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite is powered by Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU, featuring a 2+6 core configuration. This includes two Prime cores clocked at 4.32 GHz—the highest speed on a mobile chip to date—and six Performance cores running at 3.53 GHz. Qualcomm has moved away from the tri-cluster design, eliminating the need for power-saving cores like last year’s Cortex-A520. Built on TSMC’s 3nm process, the chip delivers 45% better CPU performance and 44% improved power efficiency compared to its predecessor.
On the graphics side, the Adreno GPU provides a 40% performance boost and supports ray-tracing improvements by up to 35%. The GPU also cuts power consumption by up to 40%. Qualcomm has made strides in gaming technology, with the Snapdragon 8 Elite being the first mobile chip to fully support the Nanite feature from Unreal Engine 5.3, which enhances visual detail in mobile games. Qualcomm also announced that AAA-level games will soon be available for mobile devices.
The Hexagon NPU is another key highlight, offering a 45% increase in AI processing speed while enhancing energy efficiency. Qualcomm’s updated AI Engine now supports multimodal AI models, handling up to 70 tokens in small and large models, allowing for faster and more complex AI tasks directly on the device.
For photography and videography, the Snapdragon 8 Elite features an upgraded image signal processor (ISP) that works in tandem with the Hexagon NPU to improve image quality. Users will experience better HDR, more realistic skin tones and sky colours, along with enhanced autofocus. The chip also supports features like photo and video semantic segmentation and video object eraser, making it easier to edit media on the fly. The chipset enables up to 320MP camera capabilities and supports 8K 60p video recording.
The Snapdragon X80 5G modem on the 8 Elite introduces 6x downlink carrier aggregation and AI-based mmWave range extension, delivering peak download speeds of 10 Gbps and theoretical upload speeds of 3.5 Gbps. The modem is paired with the FastConnect 7900 system, which integrates Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and Ultra Wideband (UWB) in a single 6nm chip.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite will power the next generation of Android flagship devices from manufacturers including Asus, Honor, OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, and others. The first devices featuring the chip are expected to launch in the coming weeks.
(Source: Qualcomm press release / official website)
