Unveiled at the end of October, Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip will begin to equip premium Android smartphones. It promises serious advances in terms of power.
If the month of September is reserved for Apple’s presentation of its new iPhones and therefore its new, ever more efficient chip (A18 Pro), the month of October becomes the playing field for the competition.
And this relies heavily on the prowess promised by Qualcomm’s very high-end chip, announced annually in the fall. This year, the American semiconductor manufacturer unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform which will equip the next premium Android smartphones (Samsung, Oppo, Honor, Xiaomi, etc.).
This is obviously intended to be more powerful than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, in order to compete with Apple. Beyond the name, it will also be inspired by the Snapdragon X Elite chip which now equips AI PCs and has revolutionized their advantages.
Powerful smartphones that won’t be afraid of anything
This requires more CPU power and therefore faster execution (+45%). Applications will open smoother and faster. Performance which will also allow users to take advantage of video or other editing options more easily without the device starting to stick out its tongue, by being able to manage 8K video streams or even 3D content.
Better AI, but without leaving your phone
Snapdragon is also accelerating on AI and this is why the next premium smartphones will be even more focused on artificial intelligence functions. The NPU (neural engine) will be boosted in terms of its performance and optimized consumption. Above all, this will make it possible to process requests locally, directly from the device without going through the cloud. Enough to reassure users about the protection of their personal data.
The chip will notably be able to manage multimodal generative AI (management of writing, voice and image in parallel), as well as large language models from Google, Meta and the main others. This will result in advanced functions such as real-time translation of conversations managed on the smartphone and therefore potentially without a mobile connection, more efficient management of writing assistance, generation of images, videos and now even music.
The increased AI capabilities will also aim to enrich virtual assistants by making them more intelligent. Because they will now be able to learn faster, more precisely in order to meet the needs of their users in a more personalized way, sometimes proactively. The AI will also be able to manage mobile connection antennas in order to take several into account and switch to the most efficient.
Even more beautiful and realistic games
To meet gamers’ expectations, Snapdragon has significantly improved its graphics (+40%) to make games even more beautiful and realistic. Ray tracing, which allows you to offer lighting effects, reflection on objects, and play with shadows, will increase in possibilities to get closer to console or PC graphics. By enabling support for Nanite, Epic Games’ mobile solution, games will be able to benefit from 3D environments worthy of cinema.
The processor architecture also improves fluidity – promised to be constant, whatever the complexity of the scene displayed – and the quality of images scaled using specific algorithms.
Improvements are also expected in cloud gaming, with faster connectivity (5G and Wifi 7 improved with even faster speeds) and less latency. The Snapdragon 8 Elite processor should also give rise to many more augmented reality applications on Android.
Photos: humans even more beautiful, animals too
This has been the crux of the war between Samsung, Apple and Chinese manufacturers for years. If everyone brings their own personal touch, it is generally the capabilities of the Snapdragon platform which offers a good basis (and multiple functions in common).
The Snadragon 8 Elite even promises to “redefine photography” thanks to AI. It will be possible to erase objects from videos as you can already do on certain photos. InSight AI will be able to adjust the hue of the skin and sky in real time to create more natural effects, whatever the conditions.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite will be able to take into account all the elements of the photo frame to improve them individually (hair, faces, objects, backgrounds, clothing to change the color, etc.). This can especially be useful for your selfies or video calls to make you look more beautiful.
Animals are not forgotten and the power of the platform can even allow you to take a photo of your pet while it looks at the camera. AI can detect and understand their attitude. On the video side, it will be possible to film in 4K at 60 frames per second even in total darkness.
An even more durable smartphone
It is especially on autonomy that the move upmarket could be felt. Qualcomm works on each chip to limit energy consumption without losing efficiency. He promises that the Snapdragon 8 Elite will reduce its requirements by 27% and therefore offer smartphones better autonomy.
Reinforced security
Security is also at the heart of the platform. It will even be reinforced this year with the improvement of facial recognition, more advanced and secure on the next Android smartphones, more secure protection of personal data thanks to AI.
The first smartphones announced with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip
Asus ROG Phone 9
Xiaomi 15
OnePlus 13
Honor Magic7 Series
Realme GT 7 Pro
Nubia RedMagic 10
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