On stage at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, the chipmaker introduced its newest silicon for premium phones, the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Soon after, Xiaomi took the stage to declare that the first device to use this chip would be its own flagship Xiaomi 15, which is coming by the end of October.
Xiaomi senior vice president Adam Zeng made the announcement, detailing the first performance advantages the Snapdragon 8 Elite will bring to phones. The Xiaomi 15 series has a 29.7% decrease in power consumption and runs 3 degrees Celsius cooler at peak temperatures. Given Qualcomm's emphasis on battery efficiency in the new Snapdragon 8 Elite, this is the first real-world example of how the chip improves phones.
Xiaomi did the same thing at last year's Snapdragon Summit when it revealed the Xiaomi 14 would be the first phone to run last year's leading Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. It was the Xiaomi 14 Ultra released back in April that impressed me with its fast speeds, great cameras and AI features.
Qualcomm says its Snapdragon 8 Elite offers many advancements thanks to its Oryon CPU, which debuted in the company's PC chips last year. On mobile, this promises higher performance as well as greater efficiency, especially when performing intensive tasks. For example, phones using the chip can game for 2.5 hours longer, Qualcomm says. The new chip also offers more generative AI features.
More phones will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite, including the Asus ROG Phone 9 which is set to launch in November, but the Xiaomi 15 will be the first across the finish line to show what the chip is capable of. We'll have to wait and see how (and if) it harnesses the additional generative AI and camera capabilities debuting in the Snapdragon 8 Elite.