Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite: a wave of premium smartphones is about to break
The Snapdragon Summit organized each year in Hawaii hosts the presentation of the American's new mobile chip. After the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, 2 and 3, 2024 changes the situation: goodbye to the encrypted generations, the latest version of the chipset for smartphones takes the name Snapdragon 8 Elite. A model that adopts Oryon cores inspired by the Snapdragon X Elite for PC, and promising a new leap in power on the CPU side. A new Adreno GPU is included in the SoC, as well as an NPU (Neural processing unit) New generation Hexagon, aiming to increase its capabilities in terms of artificial intelligence.
As always, Qualcomm's presentation is accompanied by a list of partners who will adopt its new chip. The end of the year promises to be busy, with the founder citing “Asus, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi and more” whose presentations are expected “in the coming weeks”. Let's leave aside iQOO and Vivo, whose devices are not marketed in France, to focus on the other manufacturers mentioned by Qualcomm.
Asus set to unveil ROG Phone 9
The case of Asus is already settled: the Taiwanese brand announced, in the wake of the Qualcomm conference, the upcoming presentation of its ROG Phone 9. The gaming-oriented smartphone, successor to a ROG Phone 8 powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, will, according to the brand's words, be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Matched with the slogan “Alright on, game on”the device will focus as always on mobile gaming, but will also give pride of place to artificial intelligence. Asus plans an official release on November 19, a stone's throw from the Snapdragon Summit, and its release should take place a few days or weeks later, in accordance with the manufacturer's habits.
Honor prepares its Magic 7 (Pro)
Honor also confirmed, in the wake of the Qualcomm announcement, the upcoming officialization of its Magic 7 Pro. Focused on AI, as it should be for any high-end smartphone, the device will be made official alongside a larger Magic 7 series on October 30, in China. It remains to be seen whether we can expect the terminal to be presented in Europe during the next Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (from March 3 to 6, 2025), the show having hosted the European presentation of the Magic 6 Proor if Honor intends to review its calendar.
A OnePlus 13, a Realme GT 7 Pro… and an Oppo smartphone to come
OnePlus has been widely heard in recent weeks, for its model 13, most of whose characteristics have already become known. The premium smartphone will be presented on October 31, with this Snapdragon 8 Elite, the manufacturer having already started teaser its partnership with Qualcomm. As for Oppo, its sister brand, it appears in Qualcomm's list. It's not for his Find X8 Prowhich it is already confirmed that it will be equipped with the Dimensity 9400 freshly unveiled by MediaTeklike a classic Find X8. Does this mean that we should expect other announcements from the BBK Electronics firm? We would tend to think that a folding terminal (Find N series) is on the agenda for a future announcement. A third BBK brand, Realme, also took part in a teaser: it confirms the announcement, in November, of a GT 7 Pro model, in India at least. We can hope to see it appear in Europe, Realme having resurfaced on the Old Continent with its GT 6.
Xiaomi 15 series: an imminent presentation
Let's finish with two last heavyweights in the telephone sector, Samsung and Xiaomi. The South Korean could adopt the Snapdragon 8 Elite within its Galaxy S25 series expected between January and February 2025; rumors have been multiplying for several weeks and most often clash, some counting on the use of Exynos, others on a supply from MediaTek. By mentioning Samsung, Qualcomm reminds that its partnership with the manufacturer is not obsolete. As for Xiaomi, its intentions are clear: on the sidelines of the Qualcomm event, one of its vice-presidents, Adam Zeng, confirmed the integration of chipset to the upcoming Xiaomi 15 series. This, he assures, will be presented before the end of October and will be the first to bring the Snapdragon 8 Elite to the international scene. Suffice to say that the news will be in full swing over the next few The Digitals !
