Qualcomm debuted its Oryon cores with the Snapdragon X Elite back in 2023, but the company has been talking about those cores since 2022. They're custom Arm core designs rather than the off-the-shelf cores that Qualcomm typically used from Arm, but the strategy of custom Arm cores isn't a new one. Apple has famously operated in the same way with its own M chips and Bionic chips, with a recent example being that the M3 appears to be a hybrid of the A17 Pro Bionic and the A16 Bionic. Now Qualcomm is following a similar strategy, and its Oryon cores are coming to mobile with the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite: Specifications

Oryon comes to mobile

We expected it for a long time

While it only made sense that Qualcomm would eventually want to bring Oryon to mobile, it's finally happened, and it looks like it brings some pretty big improvements. Not only does do we see a pretty large performance and efficiency uplift, but we also see a rather unique core configuration for Qualcomm. With two prime cores and six performance cores, there's a lot of power that the CPU is capable of outputting that Qualcomm never tried to do when it used Arm designs. On top of that, there are big graphics improvements, with a 40% performance and efficiency uplift seen as well.

What's especially interesting is that, because these cores are all-new, Qualcomm will have had to rebuild many aspects of the SoC from the ground up. It's not just new cores; it's a new everything, and it's all linked into the work that Qualcomm has been doing for Snapdragon X Elite in laptops, too. There really isn't anything we can compare it to, as it's obviously very different to past Qualcomm chips, and we can't say for certain how much it will stack up against Snapdragon X Elite laptops. They share DNA, but it's not clear how much yet.

Qualcomm is saying that in Geekbench, the Snapdragon X Elite on the company's reference device should score in and around 3221 for single-threaded and 10426 for multi-threaded, which is a pretty big deal if it turns out to be the case. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, for context, scored around 2400 and 7500 in those respective categories, so it's a pretty big deal when it manages to make such a large leap.

Of course, those leaps aren't possible every generation, and this time around is simply because of the leap from one platform to another. Future developments may be more iterative, but right now, it looks like the jump from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to Snapdragon 8 Elite is a pretty big one.

Otherwise, a lot of similarities

Though still a very different chip

Aside from the big CPU changes, much of the Snapdragon 8 Elite will seem pretty familiar. There's a new Adreno GPU, you get the same Qualcomm AI Sensing Hub (with some pretty big improvements around AI in both efficiency and performance), and you get the Snapdragon X80 modem, too. You can output to high-resolution displays, you get similar (but improved) specs to last generation's ISP in the new ISP, and overall, it's a largely similar chip. That's not a bad thing, but if the CPU wasn't such an overhaul, it would be a largely iterative experience over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

There are big power savings, better generative AI, improvements to connectivity and sound, better security, more camera bandwidth, and all of the usual improvements and changes you'd expect to see from a generation on generation upgrade. This is a big moment for the Snapdragon mobile series, and it could shape a new future for Android smartphones going forward.

If you're looking to pick up a device with a Snapdragon 8 Elite, companies such as Asus, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi, and more are expected to launch devices in the coming weeks.