Qualcomm's latest mobile chip will give Chinese phones the "vitality" needed to compete with Apple and Samsung on the AI ​​front.

Qualcomm announced its latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chip on October 21, emphasizing its ability to run generative AI models directly on the device without going through remote servers. It includes Oryon cores similar to the chips used in Windows computers.

According to the American semiconductor company, the new chip has a 45% performance increase compared to the previous generation. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is manufactured on a 3nm process, including two cores clocked at 4.32GHz and six cores clocked at 3.53GHz, and an Adreno 830 GPU.

The decision to return to using its own processor designs is part of Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon's strategy. Under previous CEOs, the Snapdragon line gradually relied on Arm designs.

Oryon was developed by a team of engineers at Nuvia, a startup acquired by Qualcomm, and plays a central role in the company’s laptop chips.

b0bx9bcu.png
Xiaomi Senior Vice President Adam Zeng attended Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite chip launch event on October 21. Photo: YouTube

At the Qualcomm event, Xiaomi Senior Vice President Adam Zeng announced that Xiaomi will be the first company to launch a device powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip when the Xiaomi 15 series is launched in late October. The Xiaomi 15 marks a new beginning in the partnership with Qualcomm, he added.

Honor, OnePlus, Realme are among other Chinese phone makers that have shared plans to bring the Snapdragon 8 Elite to their products.

Realme will introduce the GT 7 Pro in November to gain more market share in the high-end segment. Meanwhile, Honor's Magic 7 series is scheduled for launch on October 30 and also uses the latest product from Qualcomm.

AI features have become the most important differentiator in smartphones. Big brands like Apple, Google, and Samsung have started designing their own chips with NPU (neural processing unit) cores to handle AI tasks.

Samsung uses both its own Exynos chips and Snapdragon chips in its Galaxy phones. The Korean giant has announced that it will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip in its upcoming models.

Chinese phones are accelerating efforts to improve their generative AI capabilities. Apple's iOS 18.1 update will soon bring Apple Intelligence to iPhones in some countries, but in stages and not immediately available in mainland China.

Previously, in a phone call with investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that he must understand legal regulations before committing and have a roadmap to bring AI features to iPhone users.

With OpenAI banned in China, Apple has had to look for other partners to provide Apple Intelligence in this market. Earlier this year, Samsung teamed up with Baidu to bring AI models to the Galaxy S24 line there.

Qualcomm is a key partner for Android phone makers, especially in the high-end segment. Its smartphone chip shipments accounted for 31% of the global market in the second quarter thanks to this segment, according to Counterpoint Research. Taiwan’s MediaTek, known for its low-cost chips, topped the list with 32%.

Expanding the Oryon design from laptops to smartphones marks a new step forward for Qualcomm in chip design, according to Counterpoint analyst William Li.

It not only brings new vitality to the ecosystem but also deeply impacts the development of the entire smartphone industry.

(According to SCMP, Qualcomm)