A few hours ago, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the fastest chip ever for Android devices. This is a 3nm chip that offers significant performance and efficiency gains. Connectivity is also improved thanks to Bluetooth 6.0 and an enhanced 5G modem. It could also bring ultra-wideband (UWB) to the base Galaxy S25.
Snapdragon 8 Elite is the first Qualcomm chip with built-in UWB to support Galaxy S25
Qualcomm has confirmed that the Snapdragon 8 Elite will have UWB built-in. This is the first Qualcomm chip with UWB. This means smartphone brands like Samsung don’t need to use a separate UWB chip. The company has successfully integrated Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and UWB into the FastConnect 7900 system, which is fully integrated into the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
Previous Snapdragon chips supported UWB, but required a separate chip and sometimes additional licensing fees. This means that not all smartphone manufacturers include UWB in their phones due to cost and space-related concerns. UWB comes as part of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, so you don’t have to pay extra.
This means Samsung can finally bring UWB connectivity to the base model of the Galaxy S25 as well, improving tracking accuracy with Galaxy SmartTag devices. Previous base Galaxy S devices, such as the Galaxy S23 and Galaxy S24, do not have UWB, presumably because Samsung wanted to save on additional hardware and licensing costs, and to make the Plus and Ultra models look better than the base model. It was.
However, we still have to wait to see if Samsung will introduce UWB to the base Galaxy S25. The Korean company could theoretically disable UWB via software to make the Galaxy S25+ and Galaxy S25 Ultra look better on paper. To refresh your memory, the Galaxy S21 Ultra was Samsung’s first phone with UWB connectivity.
Samsung is also expected to offer satellite connectivity on the Galaxy S25 series for emergency messaging and calls in areas where cellular networks are unavailable.
