Qualcomm’s latest mobile chipset is the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Just a few years after revamping its mobile chipset naming system, Qualcomm has done it again. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is the company’s latest high-end smartphone SoC, and like its laptop chip counterparts, it carries the “Elite” branding. This new chipset is powered by the Oryon CPU, which Qualcomm says delivers improved performance and includes support for on-device multimodal AI capabilities.

The Oryon CPU inside the Snapdragon 8 Elite is not a direct copy from Qualcomm’s laptop processors. Instead, it’s a second-generation version that replaces the Kryo CPUs used in previous mobile chipsets. It features two prime cores and six performance cores. The chipset also includes an X80 5G modem-RF system and an Adreno GPU with a new “sliced” architecture, which allocates dedicated memory to each slice for enhanced performance.

In a conversation with Chris Patrick, Qualcomm’s SVP for mobile handsets, he explained how this upgraded hardware would benefit smartphone users. Essentially, it will offer a more desktop-like experience, with websites that aren’t optimized for mobile loading quickly and feeling smooth, while heavy-duty games will run more effortlessly. Patrick emphasized that users will barely notice the chipset’s presence, allowing them to focus on whatever tasks they need to accomplish, much like they would on a desktop.

As AI continues to dominate the tech landscape in 2024, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is equipped with several NPU enhancements. Its updated Hexagon NPU supports on-device multimodal AI assistants capable of processing both text and visual inputs. Additionally, the chipset includes a new AI-powered video object eraser tool, designed to remove unwanted elements from video clips. While it’s unclear how effective this tool will be, it is expected to be introduced in upcoming devices, possibly in Samsung’s Galaxy S25.

Although we may have to wait until early next year for Samsung to debut a phone featuring the Snapdragon 8 Elite, we likely won’t have to wait that long to get a closer look at the chipset itself. Devices from brands like Asus, Honor, OnePlus, Oppo, and Xiaomi featuring the Snapdragon 8 Elite are expected to be released in the coming weeks.