Our smartphones are already one of the most important devices in our lives and they get better every time we upgrade thanks to improvements in cameras, battery life and sheer performance. Now, new technology has just been announced that confirms the next generation of Android phones are going to be more powerful than ever in 2025, and the next one you buy could have enough advancements to convince you to ditch your laptop.
Many Android phones have powerful processors nestled inside them made by US tech firm Qualcomm, which have helped our phones become the main gadget in our lives thanks to huge gains in computing power, camera capabilities, better all-day battery life and raw gaming chops.
These processors are named under the Snapdragon brand – you may have noticed it emblazoned on this season’s Manchester United shirt – and Qualcomm has just revealed its new next-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile processor at its annual Snapdragon Summit event on the island of Maui in Hawaii.
The 8 Elite is the successor to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip that’s inside the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy Z Fold 6, OnePlus 12, Xiaomi 14 Ultra and several other high-end Android phones. The new chip uses a custom Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU, technology until now only found in premium Windows 11 laptops that are traditionally more powerful than smartphones.
Laptops such as the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 use Qualcomm X Elite chips, so for the firm to name the new mobile chip 8 Elite shows it’s confident that new phones could be able to go toe-to-toe with the best laptops when it comes to performance.
“We are so excited to bring the power of Qualcomm Oryon to our Snapdragon mobile platforms for the first time,” said Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets, Qualcomm.
“Earlier this year we debuted it in PCs, delivering remarkable experiences and unparallel battery life to PC users, energising the industry and getting the attention of consumers. Today, our second generation of the Qualcomm Oryon CPU debuts in our flagship Mobile Platform – it’s a major leap forward and we expect consumers to be thrilled with the new experiences enabled by our CPU technology.”
Qualcomm says the 8 Elite has a 45 percent power improvement over the 8 Gen 3, a massive gain that when paired with the claimed 40 percent boost to gaming performance could mean the next raft of top-tier Android phones with the chip are finally able to play demanding mobile games at levels normally reserved for laptops.
Though no phones have yet been announced that will have the 8 Elite inside, Qualcomm has confirmed we will soon see devices from Asus, Honor, iQoo, OnePlus, Oppo, RealMe, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi. These could include the expected Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, OnePlus 13 and Honor Magic 7 Pro, all of which could break cover in the coming months.
If you’re not a gamer, the 8 Elite is said to also bring “super-fast web browsing” to devices as well as the possibility of better AI. 2024 saw the launch of phones – many with Snapdragon processors – with new AI features such as image editing, email writing and better voice assistants. The 8 Elite has Qualcomm’s best NPU yet (that stands for neural processing unit) that will hopefully make AI faster as it processes complex queries and tasks quicker than current Android phones can.
This will include removing objects from videos you’ve shot. We’ve seen this possible for images, but being able to erase people or things from videos is something phones can’t do yet.
The 8 Elite will allow all Android phones that have it to improve skin tones in photos to keep them true to life, take better quality 4K video in low light, boost graphics in games, and support Wi-Fi 7 speeds to make your next smartphone more capable than ever.
The processor faces stiff competition from Apple and its A18 and A18 Pro found in the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro respectively, as well as the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 chip that’s in the new Vivo X200 Pro.
