Qualcomm has announced its new smartphone chip. No, it’s not the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. It’s the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and it sounds mighty impressive.
Qualcomm has just announced its next major smartphone chip. The successor to the excellent Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra and OnePlus 12 is here, and in many ways, it’s a very big deal.
Talking about smartphone chips isn’t always the most exciting thing, but Qualcomm has given us a lot to talk about and look forward to this time around. Let’s get into it.Qualcomm’s new chip has a new name
For starters, there’s the name. Widely expected to be called the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, Qualcomm’s newest mobile chip is called the Snapdragon 8 Elite. On the one hand, it brings the company’s smartphone chips in line with its Snapdragon X Elite laptop chipsets. On the other, it is confusing going from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 last year to the Snapdragon 8 Elite this year.
It’s a significant name change, and it’s one Qualcomm feels indicates how big of an upgrade this year’s chip is. Speaking with Qualcomm’s SVP and GM of Mobile Chris Patrick, he says “this is a special year” for Snapdragon and that the company sees a clear difference “before this chip and after this chip.”How much faster is it? A lot
On the note of those upgrades, let’s dig into them. Most smartphone chips have performance cores and efficiency cores. Performance cores handle intensive tasks like gaming and apps, while efficiency cores keep background processes running. For context, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has five performance cores, two efficiency cores, and one prime core (which delivers even more horsepower than performance cores).
The new Snapdragon 8 Elite doesn’t have any efficiency cores. Instead, it has six performance cores and two prime cores. Further, the clock speed of those cores is faster than before.
