Qualcomm unveils two new flagship smartphone chips focused on AI
At its annual Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the higher-end Extreme Gen 6, both built to power more advanced on-device AI and camera features.
Qualcomm has announced two new flagship smartphone processors at its annual Snapdragon Summit: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. Both chips place heavy emphasis on enabling richer artificial intelligence capabilities directly on the device.
Smarter personalization
The new chips include upgraded sensing hubs capable of running small AI models with up to 200 million parameters. This allows phones to act as a local personal scribe, distinguishing between different speakers, while also building a memory profile from usage patterns to offer better task-automation suggestions. Qualcomm says the hardware can support a complete voice-in, voice-out AI agent running entirely on the device.
More powerful on-device models
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 features a new accelerator element designed for more efficient model execution. The Extreme version goes further, capable of running a 30-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model locally, activating only a portion of its parameters for any given task. By comparison, Apple's most advanced foundation model, unveiled at WWDC in June, used a 20-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts design.
Camera and video upgrades
The new chips offer pixel-level camera control for more professional-style shooting, along with improved stabilization and motion tracking. The Extreme variant supports 8K video recording at 60 frames per second and 4K at 240 frames per second for ultra-high-definition slow motion, along with the new Advanced Professional Video codec. Both chips use AI to enhance vocals and reduce background noise, and include Qualcomm's new voice isolation technology for calls.
At the event, Motorola unveiled its new Motorola Signature 27 smartphone, powered by the Extreme Gen 6 chip, with general availability planned later this year. Qualcomm says it is working on more than 40 AI-focused devices, though many in the industry expect smartphones to remain the primary way most people access AI features rather than dedicated standalone gadgets.
