The manufacturer Qualcomm has presented what will be its top-of-the-range processor for mobile phones Android over the next 12 months. There are some important new features, such as the change in the manufacturing process at 3 nanometersthe new name that abandons Gen 4 that should correspond to the same one that Qualcomm uses in IA PCs, Eliteand a spectacular maximum speed of 4.32GHz.
This is Qualcomm’s most significant update to its mobile processors since Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 of 2021 and the one that presents the first nuclei on mobile phones Orion. With the new, more efficient chipset, Qualcomm ensures that it is no longer necessary to have efficiency cores in the SoC (System on a Chip), which has been the trend in mobile and PC processors in recent years.
The first mobile CPU with Oryon cores
The Snapdragon 8 Elite features 2 2nd generation Oryon CPU cores which reach a frequency of 4.32 GHz and are backed by 6 performance cores at 3.53 GHz. Qualcomm calls Oryon ‘prime’ cores, which can be translated as main or high-performance cores. The 3nm SoC has a total of 24 MB L2 cachewhich is divided between the main and performance cores. Each set of CPU cores (Oryon + performance) gets 12MB cache.
With these spectacular numbers, Oryon positions itself as the fastest mobile CPU on the marketsurpassing A18 Pro of Apple at almost 300 MHz. Its performance in the Antutu benchmark is 3,025,991 points, almost doubling the iPhone 16 Pro Max processor, and in Geekbench 6 it is 3,234 points in single-core and 10,059 in multi-core. The A18 Pro remains, in this test, at 3,337/8,218.
However, Qualcomm avoids mentioning the elephant in the room when we talk about mobile power: thermal throttling. That is, how long can you maintain that speed without overheating and having to reduce the frequency? We will know when the first devices that mount it arrive.
The Adreno 830 GPU
The Adreno 830 GPU is also updated. The Snapdragon 8 Elite features its first segmented architecture, which has dedicated memory for each ‘segment’. The three segments operate at 1.1GHz. The result is an improvement in power and efficiency, along with the support for new game engines like Unreal 5.3 with Nanite and Unreal Chaos Physics. The GPU also receives a boost 35% in ray tracing performance.
CPU performance has increased by 45% and it is a 45% more efficient compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The Adreno GPU is a 40% more powerful and efficient.
Power for artificial intelligence
The NPU Hexagon The updated version has been further optimized for multimodal generative AI, being able to manage more tokens, the units into which the AI computation is divided, allowing for more extensive responses.
The new Hexagon has more scale (8) and vector (6) kernelsenabling improved performance with multiple workloads. For example, the chip can more easily execute computer vision capabilities along with generative tools. As a result, Qualcomm says the NPU is a 45% faster with an improvement also in the 45% in performance per watt.
Qualcomm also promises the first ‘AI ISP’ on the Snapdragon 8 Elite. On this chip, the image signal processor (ISP) is linked directly to the NPU with a technology called Hexagon Direct Link. With the NPU integrated with image processing, a device can automatically enhance anything in the frameincluding color balance, sharpness and brightness. Qualcomm claims that the power of AI in the camera means that it can record 4K video at 60 frames per second with a vivid result, almost in complete darkness.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite adds support for Wi-Fi 7along with a new 5G modem Snapdragon X80. The new radio frequency system connects with Qualcomm’s 5G AI Gen 3 suite, which improve speed and reliability through an AI process. The maximum download speed is 10Gbps and the rise of 3.5Gbps. You can also use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and UWB together for proximity and location, resulting in a 30% improvement in positioning accuracy.
What phones will use Snapdragon 8 Elite?
Qualcomm has indicated that the Snapdragon 8 Elite will reach phones from Asus, Honor, OnePlus, Samsung, Xiaomi and other manufacturers. The first of these should be officially announced in the coming weeks.
The first round of devices with Snapdragon 8 Elite will likely include smaller manufacturers such as asusas well as those that focus on markets outside the United States, in case of Honor and Xiaomi. The first big release will probably be OnePlus 13 or the Samsung Galaxy S25 at the beginning of 2025.