Believe it or not, the Snapdragon 8 Elite could make smartphones exciting again

Unlike smartphones, explaining why a new chipset is (or is not) interesting can be quite difficult. Part of this is built into these ads at their core, worrying about any processor, desktop or otherwise, is deeply nerd. In the age of AI, this task has become even more difficult. Qualcomm, MediaTek and virtually every other SoC manufacturer are focused on delivering improved levels of power to LLM developers, all in an effort to move genAI tasks onto the device. But until these tools actually launch, it’s all a bit hypothetical for the vast majority of consumers to get excited about.

At first glance, Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset destined to power the vast majority of flagship Android devices over the next 12 months falls into that boat. Much of the discussion and demonstrations spread across the grounds of the Snapdragon Summit in Maui are focused on showcasing AI-powered pet photography, or video object removal, or, to the amusement of many tech reporters yesterday, the ability to quickly split a check with a voice command.

Flights and accommodations for this launch event were provided by Qualcomm, but the opinions contained in this article represent the independent opinion of the author.

But after speaking with Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile, for our annual chat, I’m starting to believe that the real story of the Snapdragon 8 Elite has little to do with AI. Instead, I think we could be on the verge of some real excitement in the hardware space, including, potentially, the return of some long-abandoned concepts. It will take a lot of courage from Qualcomm’s hardware partners to get there, but let me explain.

Oryon is the story behind the Snapdragon 8 Elite

And you’ll want to pay attention

Considering the ever-present focus on AI this year, I was as surprised as anyone when the conversation between myself, Chris Patrick, and a small group of fellow reporters became almost entirely focused on Oryon’s arrival. We’ve known for some time that Oryon was coming to mobile Snapdragon chips, and after a successful launch in laptops earlier this year, we’re finally seeing a similar level of power come to Android. If you’re not at least a little curious about what these high-end devices might be capable of, I think Patrick’s pitch does a good job: “Desktop-class performance, mobile-class efficiency.”

Amid promises that on-device AI will revolutionize mobile devices, Qualcomm sees the Snapdragon 8 Elite as a breakthrough in performance, combining the raw power we’ve been waiting for in smartphones with the efficiency we refuse to give up. And indeed, the move to custom cores rather than using ARM’s off-the-shelf Cortex cores comes from a desire to face that reality as quickly as possible (and, perhaps, from an ongoing rivalry with ARM that heated up after our conversation ended).

“There are still things you don’t do with your phone,” he tells me. “’I’ll wait to do this on my laptop.’ Now you won’t wait any longer (…) You’ll be confident when doing (content creation) on your phone because of the power available.”

As someone who uses a very of phones over the year to perform virtually identical tasks is an impressive promise, though it may take some time and work from outside developers to prove. But this is the first time in a long time that I’ve heard someone involved so deeply in the smartphone industry explain a potential revolution not based on task automation or an ever-increasing amount of tokens. Instead, this seems like a possibility for real, tangential change.

On a technical level, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is all about flexibility, he tells me, completely eliminating the need to keep low-power-efficient cores around. “We don’t want to have to, for example, as the workload increases, move the workload between processes if it’s not necessary,” he explains. “Because this context switching overhead is part of what slows down the end user experience. So if we can keep it just at this core scale, that’s what’s best for the end user. But the magic trick is: you can have a processor that can scale up and down all the way?”

Of course, until we can get our hands on a high-end smartphone, these claims remain just claims. There’s nothing wrong with maintaining some level of skepticism around this type of redesigned architecture. While TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process is capable of delivering the combination of performance and power that Qualcomm promises, the jump in clock speed and complete lack of efficiency cores made me, at the very least, raise an eyebrow.

Get ready for desktop mode to really matter

And the same thing goes for foldables

Okay, okay, this is all still, perhaps, a little too technical for a wide audience. But it was these promised leaps in performance that immediately made me dream of the return of experimental and exciting gadgets. I’m not just talking about foldables, although I think they could play a very important role throughout the rest of this decade. Let me take these predictions step by step, in terms of which potential dreams might actually come true in the coming years.

First, desktop mode is about to become real. Whether you’re a die-hard DeX user or you’re waiting until the Pixel 9 Pro definitely, eventually, maybe gets an updated desktop mode, I think we’re really on the cusp of your phone being able to power the vast majority of users’ workloads. . These processors are, on paper, capable of competing with the laptop you already carry in your bag. Why not have your smartphone, in turn, power your entire desktop setup with just a monitor, a mouse and keyboard, and a few cables?

As Patrick said, the lines between a “phone task” and a “computer task” are about to get blurrier than ever, and I can’t help but get excited about it. And I think this progress paves the way for foldables to really appeal to a wider audience.

My biggest complaint with devices like the OnePlus Open is how difficult it is to figure out exactly what I’m supposed to use that big screen for. But if desktop apps start coming to smartphones and foldable screens continue to increase in size and shape, suddenly a world where the full Adobe Lightroom slides right into my pocket when I’m boarding a plane or working on a hotel seems viable.

Obviously, this requires companies like Adobe to be willing to work on porting desktop apps to mobile devices, and considering that Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops still emulate Creative Cloud tools, we have a way to go. But I think the demand and hunger for this kind of portable, powerful experience is real, and I think it goes way beyond the foldable form factors you can buy now.

It’s time to rethink how we use our smartphones

And OEMs should start bringing back retired concepts

Both predictions, I think, are reasonable, but neither are my dream scenarios. I’m not a betting man, and I don’t expect companies like Samsung to break the tradition of releasing slow, iterative updates to existing product lines. However, I can’t help but feel like we could be on the verge of a new push to rethink how your smartphone can morph into different shapes and sizes. In addition to foldables, I’m thinking of Asus’s PadFone line, which died a quiet death about a decade ago after releasing just a few distinct models.

The PadFone was pretty naive on paper. Why deal with multiple devices when your Android phone can be connected to a tablet-sized screen, keeping all your apps, files and accounts while allowing for a much larger workspace. But we’re talking about technology from over a decade ago, and the raw power needed for this to be a usable concept for most people simply didn’t exist. With the Snapdragon 8 Elite, we might finally get there.

This may be an old story now, but it could be ripe for a comeback.

If it was a combination of technical limitations and fear of change that kept us from entering a single-device world, I think the old wall has finally come down. I hope some OEM is willing to make my dreams come true. Whether it’s Samsung taking another bold step after launching foldables onto the market, or a smaller OEM like OnePlus taking a creative route for its performance-oriented lineup. Who knows, maybe it’s Asus returning to the PadFone concept after letting it rest for an entire decade.

Either way, I think we’re ready for the return of one device, with multiple formats. If the performance is real and app developers can start treating Android like any other desktop operating system, why not turn your smartphone into a tablet or laptop?

The future of mobile devices may look different, but only time will tell

Obviously, my predictions here remain fiction until someone takes a courageous step forward. I think manufacturers need to be convinced of the utility this level of power can provide, and that may require a whole new class of desktop apps coming to the Play Store. But if you’ve long hoped that your smartphone will someday be the key to revolutionizing how and where you work, that path finally appears to exist with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. And the best part? No AI hype cycle necessary.