Qualcomm has made it official with the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, aiming to equip various flagship smartphones by late 2024. This new chip is likely to be included in models such as the OnePlus 13, Xiaomi 15, iQOO 13, and Realme GT 7 Pro. Most of these smartphones are expected to make their appearance between late October and early November.
Benchmark Highlights
Qualcomm presented benchmark comparisons of the Snapdragon 8 Elite against its rivals, which includes Apple’s A18 Pro, Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 “For Galaxy” variant, and Google’s Tensor G4. The benchmark tests were run on a reference smartphone that boasted high-end specifications, featuring a Prime CPU core with a clock speed of 4.32GHz, 24GB LPDDR5X RAM, and a stunning 144Hz AMOLED display.
CPU Performance Insights
The Snapdragon 8 Elite shows off its custom Oryon CPU cores, which are developed on an Arm architecture, revealing substantial improvements. In terms of single-core performance, this chip closely competes with Apple’s A18 Pro, with just a small difference of around 4%. When compared to Google’s Tensor G4, Qualcomm's latest chip displayed a striking 63% enhancement, clearly emphasizing its superiority over current Android processors. Nevertheless, even though the Snapdragon 8 Elite's top clock speed of 4.32GHz is impressive, it is uncertain how well this will perform in real-world energy efficiency.
In multi-core evaluations, Qualcomm's six performance cores allowed it to outpace Apple’s A18 Pro by 27%. However, it's worth noting that the Snapdragon 8 Elite has more cores, which provides it with a structural advantage. When comparing per-core performance, the cores of the A18 Pro still slightly outperform the Oryon cores by approximately 4.5%.
