Qualcomm introduces Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile CPU

Qualcomm Technologies Inc. has unveiled its latest and greatest System-on-a-Chip (SoC) for mobile devices, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. The first smartphones equipped with the newest mobile CPU will be launched in the coming weeks.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite is the first mobile chip to feature Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU cores and is produced on TSMC’s 3nm process node.

Qualcomm promises that the Oryon CPU delivers a 45% performance boost and 44% greater power efficiency. It’s clocked at a maximum frequency speed of 4.32 GHz. The CPU cores are based on the Oryon cores from Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X laptop processors.

On the GPU front, Qualcomm is introducing the new Adreno 830. Thanks to its newly sliced architecture, it achieves a 40% enhanced performance, 40% improved efficiency, and overall power savings of 27%.

The Qualcomm AI Engine includes the brand-new Hexagon NPU with a 45% performance boost. Additionally, the Snapdragon 8 Elite supports multimodal GenAI for text, image and speech, with AI task processing taking place directly on the device.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite is also equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sound Technology Suite with lossless music delivery up to 24-bit 48 kHz Bluetooth music streaming and up to 24-bit 96 kHz Wi-Fi music streaming.

Furthermore, Qualcomm’s newest high-end CPU offers its most powerful AI image signal processing (ISP), as well as ‘next level gaming, super-fast web browsing and more’.

“We are so excited to bring the power of Qualcomm Oryon to our Snapdragon mobile platforms for the first time,” says Chris Patrick, Senior Vice President and General Manager of mobile handsets at Qualcomm.

He adds that Qualcomm debuted its Oryon cores in PCs earlier this year. “Today, our second generation of the Qualcomm Oryon CPU debuts in our flagship Mobile Platform – it’s a major leap forward and we expect consumers to be thrilled with the new experiences enabled by our CPU technology,” Patrick adds.

The first flagship smartphones equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite CPU will be announced in the coming weeks. Smartphone manufacturers like ASUS, Honor, OnePlus, OPPO, RealMe, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi will reveal their latest high-end daily drivers with Qualcomm’s mobile SoC.