Earlier today, Qualcomm unveiled the new Snapdragon 8 Elite CPU at their Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii. This new chip is the latest and greatest from Qualcomm and will likely power the Galaxy S25 Ultra in most regions. While many believed the new Oryon cores would be a copy-paste from the Snapdragon X Elite, that isn’t the case. Qualcomm designed the Snapdragon 8 Elite for mobile devices from the very start. The prime cores on this chipset features a 4.32GHz clock speed, offering the fastest mobile CPU speeds in the world. There are six new performance cores at 3.53GHz. Qualcomm deleted the last 2 efficiency cores on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, marking the culmination of their trend to reduce efficiency cores in their chipsets.
Power and Battery Improvements for Galaxy S25 Ultra
All of these technical specs sound impressive, but what kind of performance improvements will Galaxy users enjoy as a result of this technology? For starters, the Snapdragon 8 Elite brings a 45% claimed increase in CPU performance. This will translate to faster multi-tasking, app opening, and creative workflows on the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Given Samsung’s huge focus on multi-tasking in One UI, these are welcome improvements. We also expect the AI improvements with the Snapdragon 8 Elite to translate to real-world improvements in Galaxy AI. Samsung now has more power at their disposal for the next iteration of their AI platform.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite is built on a 3nm process has support for the new 5.3GHz LPDDR5x memory. With this improvement comes the advent of a new feature called instant wake. This feature reduces frequent power cycling of individual cores using hardware that can read the next instruction immediately. For those that value battery life, this could be a huge improvement in standby time for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. Furthermore, Qualcomm claims a 44% power efficiency improvement over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and a 27% overall increase in power savings.
If Samsung is able to combine this impressive new chip with improved software efficiency in One UI 7.0 and 7.1, this could be truly revolutionary for the Galaxy S25 series and the end user. The Snapdragon 8 Elite may be one of the biggest reasons to upgrade to the Galaxy S25 Ultra in 2025. With impressive power and battery savings, plus ISP improvements for camera processing, this could be a game changer. If you’re thinking about upgrading to the S25 Ultra, make sure to sign up for our free mystery box program to get free accessories when you preorder. And stay tuned to the site for more on the Snapdragon 8 Elite, S25 series, and One UI 7.0!
