Qualcomm has announced their next generation of processors, unveiling the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, The new processors are being announced ahead of new devices to be announced soon. 

Both processors are built on the 2nm process, offering over 10% improvement in performance over last generation. The Elite Gen 6 also offers improved power efficiency, while the Elite Extreme Gen 6 takes a more extreme approach as the world’s first mobile CPU to hit 5 GHz.

Both processors include an improved Adreno GPU sure to improve performance in your mobile games, with improved performance and power efficiency on both.

Intended for use in smartphones, the processors will use the Qualcomm X105 5G Modem announced earlier this year. 

This new generation modem ‘paves the way to 6G’ supporting speeds up to 14.8 Gbps downlink and 4.2 Gbps uplink speeds. The modem also supports more current gen connectivity including wide-reaching 5G and LTE support using the 5G NR (New Radio), helping you keep connected on the move. 

More locally, there’s also Wi-Fi6 and Wi-Fi 7 support, and support for the upcoming Wi-Fi 8 standard, and support for Bluetooth 6.0, Ultra-Wideband and Thread. 

There will also be improvements in the camera, with the Elite Extreme Gen 6 now able to support triple 64MP sensor arrays, including a bump to video with support for 8K video at 60fps, or 4K at 240fps. 

Sound will also get an update with Qualcomm’s  Spatial Audio Renderer now offering ultra-low latency and improved power efficiency. 

Of course there will be on-device AI support, with the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU now 35% faster, with Qualcomm saying they will improve battery performance offering 33% better performance-per-watt.

Qualcomm is looking to leverage this on-device AI capability with Agentic AI, but we’ll see what developers come up with.

Chris Patrick, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Handsets, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. said

“Today marks a milestone as we introduce not one, but two new flagship mobile platforms, delivering agentic AI experiences that are immediate, personal, and adaptive. As the agentic AI age evolves, our multi-flagship strategy allows us to push the boundaries of what’s possible for mobile while bringing our latest AI innovations to a broader range of premium devices. By designing two innovative platforms, we’re giving OEMs greater choice as we collectively shape the capabilities of the next generation of intelligent, personalized, mobile experiences.”

The processors are expected to power ‘flagship smartphones’ from manufacturers including HONOR, iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO, REDMI, RedMagic, vivo, and Xiaomi, so we’ll have to wait and see what shows up.

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