When it comes to chipsets, explaining why one is (or isn’t) exciting can be challenging. It is inherently nerdy to care about any processor, be it desktop or otherwise. As artificial intelligence has progressed, this task is becoming more challenging.
Every SoC maker, including Qualcomm and MediaTek, focuses on providing developers with enhanced power levels, all to move genAI tasks onto the device. Until those tools are available, consumers cannot get excited about it.
Qualcomm’s updated chipset, Snapdragon 8 Elite, will power most flagship Android devices over the next 12 months. During the Snapdragon Summit in Maui, many tech reporters were amused by the demonstrations of AI pet photography. In addition, they saw video object removal and splitting a check with a voice command.
Chris Patrick, SVP and General Manager of Mobile Handsets, and I had our annual chat, and I’m beginning to see the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s real story isn’t about AI. It may be time to bring back some long-abandoned hardware concepts, rather than just rehashing old ones. Getting there will require some real bravery from Qualcomm’s hardware partners, though – let me explain.
Oryon is the story behind Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite
It was not surprising at all to me that our conversation between myself, Chris Patrick, and a small group of reporters remained almost entirely focused on Oryon’s arrival. In addition to successfully launching on laptops earlier this year, Oryon is now coming to Android tablets.
Patrick’s elevator pitch explains what these next-generation devices may offer: “Desktop-class performance, mobile-class efficiency.”
With Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, we will finally have the raw horsepower we’ve been waiting for on mobile devices, combined with the efficiency we refuse to give up. As a result, we are now using custom cores instead of ARM’s off-the-shelf Cortex cores (and, possibly, a continuing feud with ARM).
He explains, “You still don’t do certain things on your phone, but now you don’t have to wait. The horsepower available on your phone will make you feel confident creating content on it.”
The promise is certainly impressive – albeit one that may take time and some work from external developers to prove. But I’ve never heard anyone explain a potential revolution based on automating tasks or creating tokens. There seems to be tangential, real change here.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite is about flexibility, so the low-power efficiency cores can be removed completely. In the case of workload scaling, he says, it wouldn’t be necessary to move the workload between processes if it wasn’t necessary.
It’s the overhead of context switches that slows down the end-user experience. Therefore, if we can keep it to one core, that’s excellent. But if you have processors that can scale up and down, that’s good.
We can’t know for sure until we hold a next-gen smartphone in our hands. This sort of redesigned architecture should be approached with some skepticism. I’d have to raise at least one eyebrow about the leap in clock speeds and the complete lack of efficiency cores of TSMC’s new 3nm process.
Now that desktop mode matters, get ready
That’s still a bit technical for a general audience. My immediate dream of new, exciting gadgets was sparked by these promised leaps in performance. The foldable won’t be the only thing to look forward to for the rest of this decade, though those may be of importance as well. As I discuss potential dreams that might become a reality in the next few years, let me step by step.
We are about to get a taste of desktop mode for real. I believe we are actually at the point where your phone will be capable of powering the vast majority of users’ workload, whether you’re a DeX user or just waiting for the Pixel 9 Pro to get an upgraded desktop mode.
It seems like these processors can compete with the laptops you already carry around – so why not make your smartphone power your full desktop setup with only a monitor, keyboard, and mouse?
The lines between phone tasks and computer tasks are about to blur more than ever, and I cannot help but get excited about it. As a result, I think foldables will become more popular.
OnePlus Open devices have struggled to tell me what I should do with their huge displays. In the future, though, developers will be able to bring desktop apps to smartphones, and foldable displays will continue to grow in size and shape.
We have some way to go, however, since Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops still emulate Creative Cloud tools on desktops, and Adobe must port desktop-class apps to mobile.
There is still a market for these kinds of powerful, portable experiences, and I think it extends well beyond the foldable forms available today.
In my opinion, the former wall has finally crumbled due to technical limitations and fear of change. Hopefully, some OEM will realize my dreams.
OnePlus and Samsung are taking a smart step forward to stay competitive after bringing foldables to market. After a decade away, maybe Asus will revive the PadFone concept.
The return of one device in multiple forms is imminent. Android is technically capable of rendering desktop-class apps, so why not turn your smartphone into a tablet?
Mobile could look different in the future
As long as someone takes a brave step forward, these predictions remain fiction. It may require new desktop-level apps to enter the Play Store to convince manufacturers of their utility.
However, if you’ve long imagined your smartphone would someday revolutionize how and where you work, that path is now evident with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. How cool is that? We don’t need AI hype.
