The stage for the 2025 cell chipset wars has been set.
Simply weeks after MediaTek unveiled its flagship Dimensity 9400, large rival Qualcomm has unveiled its response within the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
If the title doesn’t sound acquainted, it’s as a result of Qualcomm has rebranded its strongest cell chip this yr, borrowing the ‘Elite’ branding from its laptop computer chipset. However make no mistake, this can be a direct follow-up to final yr’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
However what else is new this yr, and what can we anticipate Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered Android telephones to convey to the desk? Because it seems, quite a bit.
You might also have an interest within the Snapdragon 8 Elite options our Cellular Editor can’t wait to attempt.
When did the Snapdragon 8 Elite launch?
Qualcomm formally revealed the Snapdragon 8 Elite at its Snapdragon Summit occasion on 21 October 2024.
Qualcomm
It continues the corporate’s custom of launching a brand new era in direction of the top of every calendar yr:
In fact, the extra related date is once you’ll be capable of get your palms on the primary units that use it. For now, Qualcomm has solely stated that it will happen “within the coming weeks”.
Which telephones will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite?
Up to now, Qualcomm has solely confirmed that the next firms are “poised to launch units” powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
Based mostly on the newest rumours and former generations, we’ve added the almost definitely fashions to the record:
- Asus – Zenfone 11 or ROG Telephone 9 Professional
- Honor – Magic 7 sequence
- iQoo – 13
- OnePlus – 13
- Oppo – Discover X8 Extremely
- Realme – GT 7 Professional
- Samsung – Galaxy S25 sequence
- Vivo – X200 Professional+
Nonetheless, leaker Yogesh Brar thinks the Xiaomi 15 and 15 Professional would be the first:
Nonetheless, you possibly can anticipate loads extra units to be launched all through 2025. Primarily, the successor to any present cellphone that makes use of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is prone to shift to the 8 Elite.
What are the Snapdragon 8 Elite specs and options?
Qualcomm describes the Snapdragon 8 Elite as “probably the most highly effective and world’s quickest cell system-on-a-chip ever”. That’s primarily based on inside benchmarks, however judging by specs, there’s no cause to doubt its claims.
The 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite will probably be liable for dozens of various duties on the cellphone, however is concentrated on 5 essential ones: efficiency, energy effectivity, generative AI, gaming and images.
On the CPU facet, the chipset makes use of the second era of Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU. It contains two ‘Prime’ cores devoted to top-tier efficiency, which Qualcomm claims are the world’s quickest cell CPUs, with most clock speeds of 4.32GHz.
These speeds are achieved with out compromising effectivity. Actually, the brand new structure is supposedly as much as 46% extra energy environment friendly than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
That’s regardless of all six of the opposite CPU cores being targeted on efficiency – two of those had been effectivity cores on the 8 Gen 3. Qualcomm says that is the very best mixture of efficiency and energy effectivity, which ought to imply battery life is at the least pretty much as good because it was earlier than.
Qualcomm
The efficiency cores can supposedly attain clock speeds of as much as 3.53GHz, which means they need to be capable of run even probably the most demanding apps with out difficulty.
That CPU works in tandem with Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU, which encompasses a sliced structure for the primary time. In comparison with the 8 Gen 3, this supposedly provides 40% quicker efficiency, 40% energy financial savings and 35% improved ray tracing efficiency whereas gaming.
The 8 Elite can also be the primary cell chipset to assist Unreal Engine 5.3 with Nanite, which permits extra life like 3D gaming environments. It really works alongside the Unreal Chaos Physics Engine and may supply extra life-like object interactions whereas in-game.
As you would possibly anticipate in 2024, AI can also be a core element of the Snapdragon 8 Elite. A key development is assist for multimodal generative AI – basically, including the choices for sound, imaginative and prescient (works simply by pointing your digicam at one thing) and video to current textual content, voice and photograph inputs.
In concept, it will make any activity the place you would possibly use AI easier and extra seamless. And because it’s all on system reasonably than within the cloud, it means privateness isn’t compromised in any respect.
One other key use of synthetic intelligence is for pictures and movies. Alongside the CPU and GPU is a devoted Hexagon NPU, which is getting higher at recognising objects you seize together with your cellphone and optimising them accordingly – together with low-light scenes.
Qualcomm
The 8 Elite can also be able to segmenting a picture into over 250 layers, permitting you to pick a really particular a part of any photograph and alter it to your liking. That’s far more granular than we’ve been capable of do up till this level.
Elsewhere, the brand new Video Object Eraser enables you to take away parts from a video and realistically substitute the hole utilizing generative AI. It is a function that’s been accessible for pictures for some time, however we’ve not seen it on movies earlier than.
And in less-than-ideal circumstances, real-time relighting can add a digital movable gentle supply to make sure you keep well-lit throughout pictures. This may be adjusted manually, or routinely utilizing AI.
In fact, not all these options will probably be accessible on each Snapdragon 8 Elite system. But it surely’s a formidable function set which means the chipset is nicely future-proofed.