Next year’s top Android smartphones should have even better AI features and low-light camera performance that will last you longer when playing games. At the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the next generation chip that powers top phones from manufacturers like Samsung, Motorola, and OnePlus.
The new chip will enable even more generative AI capabilities. This has become a featured feature that tech companies are rushing to integrate into their products this year. The smartphone industry has had its own race toward generative AI, starting with the Samsung Galaxy S24 with Galaxy AI in January, but the iPhone 16 series will get some Apple Intelligence in a future update. is. So far, it’s in its early stages with only a few standout features, but Qualcomm’s next chip will support more features, giving users even more reason to buy a Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered phone. That’s what I’m aiming for.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite builds on the foundation laid by Qualcomm’s previous chip, last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which was the company’s first chip with generative AI capabilities. The new chips include support for AI assistants to recognize objects in real time using cameras, and new tricks to generate lighting so that artificially lit faces appear in videos with bright backgrounds. Our expertise is now even stronger. This is in addition to features available in previous generations of chips, such as generating images with stable diffusion and extending photos beyond their original boundaries.
The chip features an improved neural processing unit with an increased core count, resulting in up to 45% faster AI performance and improved power efficiency, Qualcomm claims. NPU is currently integrating multimodal generative AI applications on the device. This means it can process input from multiple sensors and data sources (such as audio, video, personal information, etc.) to answer queries.
8 Elite can support more than 70 tokens per second, which is a measure of the number of inputs (text, photos, etc.) that can be considered when responding to a query.
Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line chips for the past three years have been Snapdragon Gen 1, Gen 2, and Gen 3, but the Snapdragon 8 Elite breaks that naming convention and represents the best of the best, Qualcomm says. states. That’s because the 8 Elite is the company’s first mobile chip to use the new Qualcomm-designed Oryon CPU. So a year ago, the company announced its Snapdragon X Elite PC chip, the first to feature an Oryon CPU.
The 8 Elite uses a second-generation Oryon CPU with a 3-nanometer process (smaller than last year’s Kryo CPU’s 4nm), which makes the chip 45% more efficient. The chip architecture upgrade improved overall performance by 45%, but the more interesting benefit was a 62% improvement in web browsing performance. This means that websites and web-based apps load faster for consumers.
“I think everyone has experienced at least once that even though their mobile phone has excellent performance, websites become slow and cumbersome to navigate. [the Oryon CPU] We plan to provide [browsing] It delivers an experience that rivals any type of desktop,” Chris Patrick, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and general manager of mobile devices, said in a press conference.
This not only makes your website load faster; Many modern apps and software rely on web browsing, so having a CPU designed to speed up web browsing will continually improve the services consumers use every day.
This efficiency increase applies to high-intensity activities such as gaming, and Qualcomm says the new chip allows for up to 2.5 hours of additional play time.
Snapdragon 8 Elite also improves camera performance, primarily through a new ISP with improved AI touch for autofocus, white balance, and exposure. All of this is done behind the scenes and should give you better photos. The NPU now has direct access to the camera sensor itself for real-time enhancements such as video. Mobile phone manufacturers can connect their camera algorithms directly to this pipeline.
The 8 Elite also features connectivity improvements, primarily powered by AI. The X80 5G modem uses AI for multi-antenna management to better handle the signal and provide a clearer connection. FastConnect 7900 also integrates Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to reduce latency. This allows when a call is placed from within Bluetooth range, the connection can be handed off to Wi-Fi to continue the call.
We’ll have to wait until new phones with Snapdragon 8 Elite actually launch to see how much of a difference the new chip makes. But based on Qualcomm’s claims, it seems like this chip should bring a combination of general and AI-powered upgrades to the next generation of Android phones.
