Qualcomm has launched its new flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite System-on-Chip (SoC) for premium smartphones at the Snapdragon Summit. As the successor to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the new processor adopts the "Elite" title from Qualcomm's PC chips. The Snapdragon 8 Elite integrates a second-generation Oryon CPU, Adreno GPU, and Hexagon NPU.
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Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC
"Our flagship mobile platforms are now taking on the Elite name, showcasing the remarkable progress it represents for the industry," Qualcomm said, noting that the Snapdragon 8 Elite will transform user experiences with their devices—making on-device, multi-modal generative AI applications a reality on smartphones powered by Snapdragon.
Snapdragon 8 Elite in Upcoming Devices
Qualcomm announced that OEMs and smartphone brands, including ASUS, HONOR, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi, will be launching devices with the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC in the coming weeks.
"Our second generation of the Qualcomm Oryon CPU debuts in our flagship mobile platform," Qualcomm added.
Built on a 3nm architecture, the Snapdragon 8 Elite features a second-generation Oryon CPU optimised for mobile platforms. The chip uses a 2+6 octa-core processor design, with two Prime cores operating at a clock speed of up to 4.32GHz and six Performance cores with a peak clock speed of 3.53GHz. This configuration delivers a 45 percent improvement in CPU performance while being 44 percent more power-efficient, Qualcomm said.
AI-Driven Camera and Connectivity
The chip also includes an upgraded Qualcomm Adreno graphics processing unit (GPU) with a sliced architecture similar to the CPU, enhancing performance by 40 percent and boosting power efficiency by 40 percent.
Additional features include the integration of the X80 5G Modem-RF System with a dedicated AI tensor accelerator, support for dual-channel LP-DDR5x memory, and more.
For AI workloads, the Snapdragon 8 Elite incorporates a Qualcomm AI Engine that combines the CPU, GPU, and a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU). Qualcomm stated that the new Hexagon NPU offers 45 percent better AI performance and 45 percent improved efficiency per watt, along with support for on-device, multi-modal generative AI applications.
The NPU also powers Qualcomm's "AI ISP" (image signal processor), enabling AI-driven camera features such as Semantic Segmentation at 4K resolution and an on-device video object eraser for removing unwanted elements from videos.
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Qualcomm AI Engine
The Snapdragon 8 Elite incorporates features and technologies for delivering AI experiences to users, including AI-optimised Wi-Fi 7 built for extreme power efficiency, AI-based GNSS Location Gen 3, Spectra AI ISP, AI-based face detection, AI-enhanced performance improvements in power handling, enhanced AI video optimisations, and more.
Qualcomm says this chip is fully integrated with AI-enhanced connectivity, combining the latest in AI-optimised 5G and Wi-Fi 7 to deliver multi-gigabit speeds.
