Believe the hype: Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite will change everything about smartphones

Can you get excited astir a microchip? If you’ve ne'er chosen your telephone based connected nan spot inside, that whitethorn beryllium worthy considering erstwhile Snapdragon 8 Elite phones arrive. Qualcomm is doing for nan adjacent procreation of smartphones what it precocious did for Windows laptops, and phones that recognize its imagination will beryllium different from thing we’ve seen before.

Last year, Qualcomm launched nan Snapdragon X Elite chipset, a powerful processor that uses nan benignant of low-power cores usually recovered successful smartphones. The evident use is unthinkable artillery life, since mobile processors are made to sip juice, not gulp. That use is now coming to smartphones, and I’m expecting awesome artillery life gains successful nan adjacent generation. All-day artillery life is going to beryllium nan rule, not a rarity.

With nan Snapdragon X Elite, Qualcomm created an incredibly powerful caller chipset that includes its Oryon processing core. The X Elite is genuinely supercharged. The consequence was nan fastest Windows laptops you could buy, and nan first Windows laptops successful years that could outperform a premium MacBook Pro.

This year, Qualcomm flew TechRadar to Maui for its Snapdragon Summit, and to cheque retired nan Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, which brings that Oryon halfway to smartphones. After each nan speeches and bluster, I sewage to really put nan chips to work. Qualcomm provided a reference sample telephone for benchmark comparisons – and nan results wholly blew maine away.

I'm not usually a benchmark guy, but... wow!

I don’t fto benchmark scores power my reviews – I trust connected my real-world testing and acquisition – but benchmarks tin beryllium useful for speedy comparison. Take these results pinch a dash of salt, but nan quality betwixt nan Snapdragon 8 Elite and each of nan different phones I’ve tested is dramatic.

I tested nan caller Snapdragon 8 Elite alongside a Galaxy S24 Ultra, an iPhone 16 Pro, and moreover a Google Pixel 9 Pro (for laughs, nan Pixel is unspeakable astatine benchmarks). Of people nan caller Snapdragon hit nan older Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 successful nan Galaxy, but could it hit nan iPhone? The results weren’t moreover close.

Running nan 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test, nan iPhone scored 4,086 while nan Snapdragon turned successful a whopping 7,019. On nan GFX Manhattan 3.1 test, nan iPhone drew 3,647 frames, while nan Snapdragon produced 7,452 frames, much than doubly arsenic many. Again, these are only benchmarks, but those differences are stark.

What’s overmuch much absorbing is really nan Snapdragon 8 Elite compares to laptop chips. Compared to an Intel Core Ultra 7, nan Snapdragon 8 Elite hit Intel’s laptop spot successful Geekbench connected single-core performance, and came very adjacent connected multi-core testing.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite hit a laptop spot – what does mean for nan early of phones?

Qualcomm whitethorn person created a mobile chipset that performs arsenic good arsenic a PC. I can’t beryllium judge until I’ve utilized a final, accumulation handset pinch a Snapdragon 8 Elite inside, for illustration nan Asus ROG Phone 9; but for nan first clip ever, we whitethorn spot comparable powerfulness from nan best phones and best laptops.

App developers are bringing mobile apps person successful usability to their desktop counterparts, but we whitethorn soon get identical versions of Adobe Lightroom aliases Microsoft Excel crossed Android and Windows, not to mention each nan games we could yet play connected a phone.

I’m very excited astir what this intends for a conception for illustration Samsung’s DeX. With DeX, I plug my telephone into a show and keyboard and I tin usage it for illustration a desktop. If nan adjacent Galaxy S25 Ultra has a Snapdragon 8 Elite inside, DeX won’t conscionable beryllium a convenient measurement to constitute agelong emails and play mobile games connected a large screen. With existent PC power, my telephone could switch nan Surface Go laptop I usage for work.

With awesome powerfulness comes a awesome large value tag

The problem is that powerfulness is expensive. Qualcomm is driving difficult to hit nan title pinch this latest chip, some successful position of processing capacity arsenic good arsenic powerfulness management. Manufacturing nan Snapdragon 8 Elite will beryllium much costly than producing erstwhile chips, and rumors propose it will costs a batch more than nan past generation, for nan telephone makers that bargain it.

If it costs Samsung aliases OnePlus $40 (US estimate) much per chip, I would expect that equates to a $100 / £100 / AU$200 value summation for nan phone. The prices of galore of nan best Android phones went up this year, and that inclination is apt to continue.

Would I salary $1,400 / £1,350 / AU$2,400 for a Galaxy S25 Ultra? Maybe, if nan Ultra genuinely tin switch a laptop computer.

I’m not judge if a phone/laptop hybrid would entreaty to astir folks, but I tin ideate businesses deciding to bargain 1 instrumentality alternatively of supplying labor pinch a telephone and a laptop. If we spot immoderate bully accessories that make it easy to usage Snapdragon 8 Elite phones arsenic a PC replacement, I deliberation we’ll spot telephone makers trading devices pinch that intent beforehand and center.

Everything astir your smartphone is going to amended erstwhile you person a spot this accelerated inside, from browsing nan web to playing games to getting things done. Your web relationship will look faster, because nan telephone will beryllium capable to process nan information much quickly and load pages overmuch faster than before.

Honestly, we don’t moreover cognize what nan early will clasp erstwhile phones are this powerful, because our imagination has constricted this powerfulness to big, dense machines pinch gigantic batteries and a keyboard attached. I’m hoping to spot wholly caller categories of games, and caller app concepts that will make yesterday’s telephone look primitive. I’ll besides beryllium happy if I tin trust connected my adjacent telephone to past each day, for illustration my laptop.

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