Android Phones Could Get a Serious Speed Boost From the Snapdragon 8 Elite

Qualcomm has revealed the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset for high-end Android devices. It has similar Oryon CPU cores as the company’s new laptop chips, promising improved performance and power efficiency.

Qualcomm introduced its custom Oryon CPU cores in the Snapdragon X Elite laptop chipset earlier this year, which is now being used in PCs like the Microsoft Surface Laptop, Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, Dell Inspiron 14 Plus, and ASUS Vivo S 15. The company is now bringing that technology back to mobile phones, with the introduction of the Snapdragon 8 Elite and its second-generation Oryon cores.

Qualcomm said in a press release, “Our flagship mobile platforms are now taking on the Elite name, showcasing the remarkable progress it represents for the industry. This platform debuts industry leading technologies such as the second generation custom-built Qualcomm Oryon CPU, Qualcomm Adreno GPU and enhanced Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, all of which deliver game changing performance improvements.”

The new chip is a step up from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 used in many recent flagship Android phones (like the Galaxy S24 series), with a CPU that can reach 4.32 GHz at peak performance. That’s a significant step up from the 3.4 GHz Prime core in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but we’ll have to wait and see if it can sustain those speeds when needed.

Qualcomm is promising a 45% single-core speed boost, 45% faster multi-core performance, and around 62% faster web browsing. However, all that power shouldn’t come at the cost of battery life, at least if the company’s claims are accurate. Qualcomm says the chip “delivers up to 27% in overall power savings, extending your gaming time by up to 2.5 hours.”

Qualcomm is also pitching the chipset as more useful for AI and machine learning tasks, such as camera photo and video processing, or running local AI models like Gemini Nano. That could be helpful if the Android device ecosystem starts replicating the local processing features of Apple Intelligence, which is about to debut on newer iPhone models.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset will be used in upcoming devices from ASUS, Honor, OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi, and other manufactures. The devices will start to be revealed within “the coming weeks.”

Source: Qualcomm