Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 sequence of chipsets have been utilized in among the greatest, and strongest Android smartphones over time. In the course of the 2024 Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm is shaking issues up with the announcement of its newest flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
As a substitute of continuous the Snapdragon 8 Gen X sequence of naming, the corporate has opted to rename their chipsets with the Elite branding. It may appear complicated, nevertheless it’s rightfully deserved. Particularly when you think about the truth that the brand new Snapdragon 8 Elite is the primary Snapdragon cell chipset to function using Qualcomm’s newest customized Oryon CPU cores.
Why does this matter?
Previous to this, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipsets had been utilizing Kryo cores which are customized cores licensed from Arm. With the Oryon, these are customized cores designed by Qualcomm. Qualcomm will proceed to license from Arm, however solely the instruction set. This opens the door to extra prospects and customization and the potential to create one thing even higher and extra highly effective.
Based on Qualcomm, the brand new Oryon cores function Prime cores which are clocked at 4.32GHz. Then there are additionally a bunch of Efficiency cores which are clocked at 3.53GHz. Using these new cores will end in 45% enchancment in single-core efficiency, and 45% enhance in multi-core efficiency. Qualcomm can also be boasting 62% enhancements in net looking, together with a 24MP whole cache.
Energy saving capabilities
With the brand new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, it appears that evidently future units that reap the benefits of the chipset can count on power-saving capabilities. Which means in idea, handset makers can preserve the identical battery measurement, however squeeze out extra life. It is because with the brand new Oryon cores, Qualcomm says that we will count on as much as 45% in energy financial savings from the CPU.
It additionally options using Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU, which may also have energy financial savings of as much as 40%. Seeing as how AI is all the fad as of late, particularly for on-device processing, the brand new chipset may also present energy financial savings of as much as 45% in AI efficiency per watt.
Nice for gaming
Clearly with this a lot energy, the brand new Snapdragon 8 Elite might be a gamer’s dream come true. Avid gamers can stay up for large enhancements in relation to efficiency, as much as 40%. There may also be enhancements made to ray tracing, as much as 35%, together with using Unreal Engine Nanite, in addition to assist for Unreal Engine Chaos Physics Engine.
How this can truly have an effect on gameplay in real-life stays to be seen, however with these enhancements we will count on a lot smoother gameplay in addition to assist for higher-res graphics and textures.
Improved digital camera capabilities
Photograph taken in Bangkok, Thailand
There’s much more to cameras on our smartphones aside from the sensor and lens selection. There’s the underlying {hardware} that’s used to assist course of the photographs, which is the place the Snapdragon 8 Elite is available in. The brand new chipset from Qualcomm will boast new options the place the NPU of the chipset can immediately entry uncooked sensor knowledge. It is a first for Qualcomm and can assist with options like real-time AI enhancements.
Talking of AI, the chipset will supply options like AI relighting for video. This helps create a digital movable gentle supply that may match the contours of a face. There’s additionally an AI Pet Suite, and a Video Magic Eraser function that may take away objects from movies. One of the best half is that this may be achieved with out having to add to the cloud, thus decreasing latency and in addition guaranteeing a higher diploma of privateness.
Availability
So, which handset makers might be utilizing the brand new chipset from Qualcomm? Based on the corporate, manufacturers comparable to ASUS, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO, RealMe, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi are simply among the many who’re anticipated to launch units with the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
The truth is, OnePlus is poised to launch the OnePlus 13 quickly which is able to use the chipset. We additionally count on that units just like the Samsung Galaxy S25 sequence coming in 2025 will reap the benefits of Qualcomm’s newest expertise.
