In better shape than ever, Qualcomm intends to take the lead in the smartphone sector.
" Today, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform, the world's fastest and most powerful mobile chip ", are the words of Qualcomm's press attachés. After teaming up with Microsoft on Copilot+ PCs with the launch of the Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite, Qualcomm is using its major annual event - the Snapdragon Summit - to unveil its new flagship in the smartphone world, the Snapdragon 8 Elite. A processor about which the firm has this to say: " with state-of-the-art CPU, GPU and NPU capabilities, the Snapdragon 8 Elite offers spectacular improvements in performance and energy efficiency ". Nothing less!
The first advantage of the Snapdragon 8 Elite is that it enables Qualcomm to join the exclusive club of companies that benefit from the Taiwanese manufacturer TSMC's most advanced etching process, 3 nm. Qualcomm's chips are etched in NE3, to be precise, a process already used by Apple and MediaTek. In the case of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, this logically provides more transistors than the previous generation, but also enables the implementation of new architectures. The CPU part of the chip is powered by a unit comprising two Oryon cores capable of speeds up to 4.32 GHz and six "performance" cores clocked at a maximum of 3.53 GHz. There's no longer any question of low-power cores here: Qualcomm explains that the efficiency of the new Oryon cores makes it possible to dispense with these low-power cores.
Snapdragon 8 Elite in detail © Qualcomm
Alongside the CPU, there is of course a GPU section, powered by an Adreno architecture organized in "slices". Qualcomm promises performance well above that of the previous generation - +40% in fact! Of course, a modern processor would be naked if it didn't have a neural section (NPU), and here Qualcomm is highlighting its Hexagon architecture, which must be particularly at ease with so-called LLMs(large language models). Qualcomm talks of a +45% increase in performance compared with the previous generation, and sees Hexagon as a way of benefiting from AI directly from one's smartphone: of course, we won't have the power of online services, but there will be greater versatility and responsiveness, since AI will be more in tune with our own everyday uses.
Qualcomm stresses that the autonomy of smartphones using a Snapdragon 8 Elite will not be outdone. For the same level of performance, the chip's CPU will be 44% more fuel-efficient than the previous generation. The same goes for the GPU, which is said to consume 40% less energy, again at equivalent performance levels. All we can do now is wait for the first announcements of smartphones equipped in this way: during the Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm stated that its closest partners are already hard at work, citing ASUS, Honor, OnePlus, OPPO, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi. Patience, patience...
