Qualcomm Launches Two New Smartphone Chips with Emphasis on AI
Qualcomm has launched two flagship smartphone processors, called Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, with a focus on facilitating better AI-focused features.
At its annual Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm highlighted new chip capabilities designed to improve personalization for AI agents. New sensing hubs can run models with up to 200 million parameters locally, enabling features such as on-device personal transcription, speaker identification, and usage-based memory.
The chips can also run complete voice-in, voice-out AI agents locally, enabling more personalized task automation without relying entirely on the cloud.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 introduces a new accelerator designed to run AI models more efficiently. The high-end Extreme version can run a 30-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model locally, activating only the parameters needed for a given task. Apple’s latest foundation model, by comparison, is a 20-billion-parameter MoE model.
The chips also bring more advanced camera capabilities, including pixel-level control, improved stabilization and motion understanding. The Extreme version supports 8K at 60fps, 4K at 240fps, and Qualcomm’s new Advanced Professional Video codec.
AI-powered audio features include vocal enhancement, noise reduction, and Qualcomm’s new Voice Bubble technology for isolating a user’s voice during calls.
Motorola has announced the Motorola Signature 27, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Extreme, with availability expected later this year. Qualcomm is also developing chips for more than 40 AI devices as the smartphone remains a key platform for on-device AI.
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