Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset with on-device gen AI support launched at Snapdragon Summit

Snapdragon 8 Elite launch: Qualcomm launched its next generation mobile chipset, dubbed as the Snapdragon 8 Elite, at its on-going Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii today. This new chipset succeeds the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 system-on-chip (SoC) that was launched last year, and it adopts the new 'Elite' branding from the company's laptop processors. It also features the company's Oryon CPU that powers the company's Snapdragon X Elite laptop processor.

The newly launched Snapdragon 8 Elite brings significant updates to the company's premium mobile chipset series. In addition to delivering an enhanced gaming performance, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset also brings support for on-device multi-modal generative AI applications to the supported smartphones making it easier for users to run AI apps on their devices. It also brings support for multimodal generative AI assistant to the cameras and the microphone of the supported smartphone models.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite availability

As far as availability is concerned, Qualcomm has confirmed that the Snapdragon 8 Elite system-on-chip will be available on smartphones by companies such as Asus, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO, RealMe, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi launching in the coming weeks.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite specifications and features

Coming to the features, the Snapdragon 8 Elite brings support for the Qualcomm AI Engine, which the company says brings support for a personalised multimodal generative AI assistant to the cameras and the microphone. This generative AI assistant can also help users perform tasks such as summarise documents and make calculations. In addition to this, the Snapdragon 8 Elite brings support for Unreal Engine 5.3 with full Nanite support, which the company says allows 'developers to create games with film-quality 3D environments'.

On the camera front, Qualcomm says that its newly launched processor integrates the advanced AI algorithms directly into the image and video processing pipeline.

"These algorithms work together to analyze and enhance every aspect of your photos, enabling stunning results with minimal effort...This groundbreaking capability can identify and optimize over 250 layers within an image, providing an unprecedented level of control and refinement," the company wrote in a blog post.

Talking about the specifications, the Snapdragon 8 Elite features the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (neural processing unit), which the company says offers with 45 percent improved performance over last year's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. It also features Qualcomm Sensing Hub, which the company says understands a user's personal context, which in turn allows the multimodal Gen AI assistant to offer better suggestions and make better decisions.

Beyond the AI capabilities, the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite 8 features the company's Qualcomm Oryon CPU that offers up to 45 percent improved CPU performance and 44 percent more power efficiency compared to Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. This CPU can clock a speed of up to 4.32GHz. On the gaming front, this chip supports full suite of Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, which includes support for Unreal Engine 5.3, Qualcomm Adaptive Performance Engine 4.0 for improved power efficiency, and real-time hardware accelerated ray tracing to name a few.

On the camera front, this chip supports up to 48 + 48 + 48MP triple camera setup and up to 320MP single camera setup. On the video front, it supports 8K video recording at 60 fps along with technologies such as Dolby Vision, Hybrid Log Gamma (HLG), HDR10, HDR10+, and Google Ultra HDR. Coming to the display, the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite 8 supports QHD+ display with a screen refresh rate of 240Hz or an 8K display at 30Hz with support for Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HDR Vivid. On the audio front, this chip supports Qualcomm aptX audio technology and Snapdragon Sound technology to name a few.

On the connectivity front, this chip has the Snapdragon X80 5G modem along that offers up to 10Gbps download speed. It also supports Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, Bluetooth Low Energy, GPS, and NavIC.