On October 22, Beijing time, Qualcomm released its new generation flagship mobile phone processor, Snapdragon 8 Elite (hereinafter referred to as Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition) at the Snapdragon Summit. This processor is said to bring laptop-level functions to smartphones. It is Qualcomm's most powerful and fastest mobile system-on-chip to date.
Qualcomm said that the platform uses the second-generation customized Qualcomm Oryon CPU, Qualcomm Adreno GPU and enhanced Qualcomm Hexagon NPU for the first time to achieve multi-modal generative AI applications on the terminal side. These technologies also enable many other experiences, including imaging functions using the company's powerful AI-ISP, next-generation gaming experience and ultra-fast web browsing.
At the summit, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also expressed their support online.
1. Self-developed Oyron CPU, the strongest performance of current smartphones
Public information shows that the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition is manufactured using TSMC's 3nm process. Compared with the Snapdragon 8 Gen3, the CPU performance is improved by 45%, the energy efficiency is improved by 44%, and the CPU has a maximum frequency of 4.32GHz, exceeding the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 and Apple A18 Pro.
The Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition is equipped with a new Oryon CPU. As Qualcomm's "world's fastest mobile CPU", the Oryon CPU does not directly adopt the architecture of computer chips, but consists of two "super cores" with a main frequency of 4.32GHz and six "performance cores" with an operating frequency of up to 3.53GHz, integrating the X80 5G modem RF system.
The new Adreno GPU design has also changed significantly, with dedicated memory allocated to each slice, achieving a 40% increase in single-core performance, a 42% increase in multi-core performance, and a 40% reduction in power consumption. It also improves ray tracing performance by 35%.
In addition, Qualcomm has reserved 12MB of memory for the GPU, which reduces the access to system memory during data transmission interaction, and can also reduce power consumption delay and system memory usage.
In terms of network connection performance, the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition is equipped with a Snapdragon X80 5G modem, with a peak download speed of up to 10 Gbps and a theoretical maximum upload speed of up to 3.5Gbps. This is a groundbreaking modem that supports 6Rx for smartphones for the first time and is also equipped with a dedicated AI tensor accelerator, which can optimize data transmission speed and reduce latency through AI.
2. Cooperation with Zhipu and Tencent Hunyuan on end-side AI
Qualcomm has been deeply involved in end-side AI for many years. The Qualcomm AI engine based on heterogeneous architecture has successfully implemented large models, AIGC and other applications on the end-side with its performance and flexibility.
The Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition is equipped with Qualcomm's fastest Hexagon NPU to date, with 80TOPS AI computing power, 46% performance improvement, 45% energy efficiency improvement, and comprehensive improvements in CPU, GPU, memory, etc., which also take the platform's AI performance to a higher level, with a comprehensive AI performance enhancement of 45%.
In the MLPerf BenchMarks test, compared with the third-generation Snapdragon 8, the improvement reached 104% (EDSR super score).
It can be seen that Qualcomm is expanding the capabilities of its AI engine to support multimodal generation tasks. Both the "big cup" and "small cup" multimodal models can run smoothly on its SLM at a speed of up to 70 tokens per second.
In terms of imaging, the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition is equipped with an enhanced image signal processor (ISP) and is more deeply integrated with the new Hexagon NPU. This means that taking photos can get more AI capabilities, such as the HDR effect will be taken to a higher level, the skin color of the characters and the color of the sky will be closer to nature, and the autofocus capability will be better. In addition, Qualcomm has also introduced semantic segmentation technology for photos and videos at the chip level, as well as the function of removing objects in videos.
At the Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm Technologies also announced cooperation with Zhipu and Tencent Hunyuan.
Qualcomm and Zhipu cooperated on the GLM-4V end-side vision model, which was deeply adapted and optimized for inference on the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition, supporting a rich multi-modal interaction method. Leveraging the powerful end-side AI performance of the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition and the performance optimization brought by the Qualcomm AI software stack to the model, the GLM-4V end-side vision model can run at a high speed of more than 70 tokens/second on the end-side.
The GLM-4V-Mini, GLM-4V-Nano end-side vision model and the GLM-4-9B model will soon be launched on the Qualcomm AI Hub, and commercial mobile phones equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition can support them.
Qualcomm and Tencent Hunyuan have cooperated to implement the terminal-side deployment of the 7B and 3B versions of the Tencent Hunyuan model based on the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition mobile platform, further expanding the application and popularization of generative AI technology on the end-side.
In terms of game performance, Qualcomm and NetEase cooperated to create an innovative "Naraka: Bladepoint" mobile game experience based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition chip, using a series of Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, and bringing a new upgraded AI teammate function on the terminal side.
3.Mobile phone manufacturers, new phones are released in succession
Qualcomm revealed that leading OEM manufacturers and smartphone brands such as ASUS, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, Red Magic, Redmi, realme, Samsung, vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE will release terminal devices equipped with Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition in the next few weeks.
Not only that, Xiaomi Group Senior Vice President Zeng Xuezhong, Honor CMO Guo Rui, and Samsung Mobile Experience President Lu Taiwen came directly to the press conference to support Qualcomm.
At the Snapdragon Summit, Xiaomi Group Senior Vice President and President of International Department Zeng Xuezhong announced that the Xiaomi 15 series will be the world's first Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition, and the new phone will be released at the end of this month. It is reported that the Xiaomi 15 series equipped with Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition has a 29.7% reduction in power consumption and a 3°C drop in temperature at full frame.
Honor CMO Guo Rui showed the real photos of the Magic7 series. The back of the device adopts an octagonal camera Deco design, the middle frame is a metal right-angle edge, and the front is a centered dual-hole screen that supports 3D face recognition + ultrasonic screen fingerprint recognition.
Not only that, terminal equipment manufacturers have sent congratulatory messages and revealed the dynamics of new phones equipped with Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition:
ASUS Co-CEO Xu Xianyue:
"ROG 9 is equipped with the excellent performance of Snapdragon 8® Extreme Edition mobile platform, integrating innovative terminal-side generative AI and gaming capabilities, bringing changes to consumer experience."
The ROG 9 series includes two models, ROG 9 and ROG 9 Pro. It is reported that ASUS will launch ROG 9 in November 2024 and release the Pro model in the first quarter of 2025.
Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd.:
"Our upcoming flagship product, the Honor Magic 7 series, is equipped with Qualcomm Technologies' most advanced Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition mobile platform. We are very excited to launch the industry's first AI Agent for an open ecosystem, and for the first time introduce the on-device generative AI driven by NPU computing to portraits and games."
Honor will hold a press conference for the Honor Magic 7 and Magic 7 Pro on October 30, 2024. This series of mobile phones will be the first to be equipped with the new Honor MagicOS 9.0 operating system.
Duan Yaohui, senior vice president of OPPO, said:
"OPPO has maintained a close cooperation with Qualcomm Technologies for many years, bringing users many innovative experiences including on-device generative AI. We are very much looking forward to the release of OnePlus 13, which will not only be equipped with the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition mobile platform, but also the flagship masterpiece that will open a new decade for the OnePlus brand."
The release of the OnePlus 13 mobile phone is scheduled for 4 pm on October 31. This phone is called OnePlus's "first flagship of the new decade" and is nicknamed "Thirteen Spices" internally.
Xu Qi, Vice President of realme and President of China
"The release of the Snapdragon 8® Extreme Edition mobile platform has once again refreshed the performance boundaries of mobile phone products, injecting unprecedented power into realme's latest flagship products. I believe that the outstanding technical upgrades of the Snapdragon 8® Extreme Edition mobile platform will bring users amazing performance and enable a rich experience across imaging functions and terminal-side generative AI."
realme will release the GT7 Pro this month, with an AnTuTu score of 3.02 million. The GT7 Pro is equipped with a high-specification micro-quad-curved screen of about 6.8 inches, and the display effect is excellent.
Yu Hang, co-founder of Nubia
"As the pioneer of the e-sports gaming phone category, Red Magic has always been committed to breaking through the performance limits and will take it as its responsibility to create professional-quality e-sports equipment for users. The new Red Magic 10 series will be released soon. The series will be equipped with the Snapdragon 8® Extreme Edition mobile platform and will officially meet with everyone in November. We firmly believe that with the excellent performance of the Snapdragon 8® Extreme Edition, the Red Magic 10 series will bring consumers an unprecedented gaming experience."
Shi Yujian, senior vice president and chief technology officer of vivo
"With the new slicing architecture and other rich features from Qualcomm Adreno GPU, iQOO 13 will bring consumers an excellent new gaming experience and stunning visual effects. We will work together to promote the e-sports experience into a new era."
iQOO 13 will be the first to be equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition processor, and equipped with a 2K ultra-narrow edge straight screen with a refresh rate of 144Hz. It is estimated to be released in China in October and land in the Indian market on December 3.
Luo Wei, Vice President of ZTE and Director of Product Center of ZTE Terminal Business Unit
"We are pleased to announce that the nubia Z series flagship phone based on the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition mobile platform will be launched soon. This new phone not only continues nubia's professional imaging genes, but also upgrades performance, design and system experience."
Lu Weibing, Partner, Group President, and President of Mobile Phone Department of Xiaomi Group
"The Xiaomi 15 series will soon launch the flagship "core king" of Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition, bringing amazing performance, excellent energy efficiency and terminal-side multi-modal generative AI application support, opening a new era of terminal-side generative AI." It is reported that Xiaomi will launch the Xiaomi 15 series on October 28.
At this Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon spent a lot of time in his speech to explain Qualcomm's understanding of AI trends. In his view, AI capabilities will become the most important user experience on future mobile phones. Users will gradually abandon traditional apps and experience more AI applications, and the status of traditional killer applications will also be threatened.
"Qualcomm is transforming into an interconnected computing company dominated by AI processors." - Today, the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition has built a broad stage, and the war for AI mobile phones has officially begun.
This paper is from Ulink Media, Shenzhen, China, the organizer of IOTE EXPO (IoT Expo in China)
