Of all the big players in the electronics industry, Qualcomm has arguably emerged as the one to watch of late, especially as rumors continue to spread that the company wants a piece of Intel, or maybe all the big pieces.
Qualcomm resonated on Monday at Day 1 of Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii, with the intro of custom-built Oryon CPU to mobile, calling it the world’s fastest mobile CPU and labeling it the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The CPU operates at 4.32 GHz peak speed, which beats Apple's A18 Pro chip at 4.04 GHz.
The company ticked off OEMs and smartphone brands ready to launch Snapdragon 8 Elite in coming weeks: ASUS, Honor, iQOO, One Plus, OPPO, RealMe, Samsung, Vivo Xiaomi and others.
CEO Cristiano Amon in a keynote said the company will deploy Snapdragon to “set the pace of innovation in the industry” and made the case for AI at the edge not only in data centers. “Data centers are actually, in some cases, moving to where the energy is, but Snapdragon is different. We are where the humans are.”
Given the vast number of AI smartphones expected to emerge in coming years, the idea of AI at the edge begins to take on credence. Qualcomm featured video of Open AI CEO Sam Altman making that point: “Qualcomm has been driving generative AI inference at the ede with energy efficient, high performan AI inference capabilities in Snapdragon platforms. Qualcomm is well positioned with capabilities and benefits of AI models at the fingertips of billions of users worldwide. We’re just at the beginning of what AI can do."
And Qualcomm featured partner Microsoft, with CEO Satya Nadella again focusing on edge AI. “There’s no question we entered a new age of computing and AI at the edge is becoming even more important,” Nadella said in a statement. He mentioned Microsoft’s work with Qualcomm to deliver Copilot experiences for consumers and enterprises on all types of devices. Copilot is Microsoft’s AI-powered digital assistant, already being used on desktops and laptops in some enterprises to provide real-time intelligence to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.
Qualcomm asserts its latest Snapdragon will help restore leadership in the Android ecosystem with 45% faster performance than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 of 2023. Samsung issued a statement that Qualcomm’s contribution will be a “big part” of the future of its Galaxy smartphones on Android.
The Snapdragon news is positioned against Apple’s big Apple Intelligence maneuver made in September with the introduction of the iPhone 16 lineup. Apple’s iOS 18 upgrade is what unlocks the intelligence magic.
RELATED: Is iPhone 16 with Apple Intelligence powerful enough to entice buyers?
Amon didn’t compare Snapdragon X Elite to Apple’s A18 Pro chip, but did show slides describing a 51% faster CPU performance than Intel Core Ultra 9 series and 12% faster CPU performance than AMD Ryzen AI 9. It is 45% better in CPU performance than the prior generation, while 44% more power efficient.
The Snapdragon mobile introduction again showed the industry is willing to embrace AI in its many forms, and early indications show buyer interest in the iPhone 16 lineup. Canalys in a survey in May found 25% of consumers globally were very highly or highly interested in buying a GenAI smartphone.
The platform supports advanced camera capabilities, higher-level gaming, and fast browsing. Qualcomm released a list of 10 ways the Oryon CPU will work with features to “revolutionize” coming smartphones. One item mentioned is the ability to obtain quick summaries of lengthy documents on the device. An entire chapter of a book is supported, or a lengthy technical document. Another is a 62% better response when browsing the web with Chrome, compared to the previous generation. New and improved image generation is another feature, along with better video editing and AI Relighting—a virtual, movable light source that intelligently maps to the user’s face for the best image.
Technical specs released by Qualcomm show Snapdragon 8 Elite includes an AI Engine of a Qualcomm Adreno GPU, the Oryon CPU and the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU. It also supports a 5G Modem, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and UWB.
“The new Snapdragon chips put increasing pressure on competitive chips and especially Apple,” said Jack Gold, an analyst at J. Gold Associates. “Qualcomm is pushing the AI barriers and that’s not only good for them, but the industry in general.”
Gold believes there’s no real killer app yet for AI smartphones. “We’re at a similar point to when smartphones were in their early days where there was not a single killer app but a variety of apps based on your particular wants and needs.”
"We are at the early stages of the narrative for AI at the edge," said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies. Both Apple and Google are talking up AI but the industry doesn't yet have ample benchmarks to quantify the AI experience, he said. "We are still looking for some of the key use cases that will drive AI adoption at the edge, but having capable silicon is a key part of that AI software development ecosystem to get started."
Patrick Moorhead, analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, said the biggest recognition from Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite is that it beats Apple's fastest chip. "It was many years in the making and just shows that Apple's unassailable mobile chip tech leadershipposition is at risk," he told Fierce Electronics.
Automotive Snapdragon upgrades
On Tuesday at the Summit, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Ride Elite platforms for automotive customers. The platforms offer three times faster CPU performance and are designed to use AI to provide better in-vehicle experiences.
Li Auto and Mercedes-Benz AG were named as customers for the platforms for future vehicle models.