Today, as expected, the American chipmaker Qualcomm officially unveiled its new flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite platform, which became the developer’s first mobile product built on Oryon computing cores of its own design.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which is manufactured using a 3nm process technology, includes two Prime cores with a maximum frequency of up to 4.32 GHz and six Performance cores operating at a frequency of 3.53 GHz.
According to Qualcomm, performance increased by 45% compared to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and energy efficiency increased by 44%.
The Adreno graphics processor of an unnamed model, which is integrated into the Snapdragon 8 Elite, has received a new architecture that provides an increase in graphics processing speed of up to 40% and a similar increase in energy efficiency. At the same time, ray tracing has been improved by 35%.
“Imagine games with stunning 3D scenes–the kind you’d expect from AAA games on high–end video game consoles-right on your smartphone. The Snapdragon 8 Elite makes this dream come true,” Qualcomm emphasizes.
The Hexagon neural processor, which is responsible for processing tasks related to artificial intelligence, has also become 45% faster. The manufacturer claims a 45% increase in productivity in AI tasks and a 45% increase in performance per watt.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite has also been equipped with a redesigned signal processor (ISP), which now supports cameras up to 320 MP and is more deeply integrated with the neuromotor. At the same time, the developers promise improved HDR, more natural skin tone, sky colors, as well as improved autofocus performance.
In addition, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip received an AI-based Snapdragon X80 5G modem with support for 4×4 MIMO technology and extended millimeter range (mmWave). Its peak download speed is 10 Gbit/s, and the theoretical maximum data transfer speed is 3.5 Gbit/s.
The new modem is paired with the proprietary FastConnect 7900 system, which combines Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 and UWB wireless modules in one unit.
Smartphones running on the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor can have up to 24 GB of LPDDR5X dual-channel RAM with an operating frequency of up to 5.3 GHz. As for flash drives, then, apparently, we are talking about the UFS 4.0 format.
The first flagship smartphones built on Snapdragon 8 Elite will be released in the “coming weeks,” and Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Pro devices will be one of them. In addition, the upcoming release of the Asus ROG Phone 9, Honor Magic 7, iQOO 13, OnePlus 13, Oppo Find X8, Realme GT 7 Pro, Samsung Galaxy S25 and one of the top Vivo models is expected.