Samsung unveiled a bunch of new gadgets at its Unpacked event, but the baddest of the bunch were likely those Galaxy S25 smartphones. Smartphones are only as good as the chips that power them, and the S25 series features a custom version of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite system-on-a-chip (SoC.)
Qualcomm is calling it “the world’s fastest mobile system-on-a-chip” and it powers every Galaxy S25 version across the world, from the standard release to the Plus and the Ultra. This is only the second time the same chipset has been used to power Galaxy S-series handsets globally. Typically, North America gets a Qualcomm SoC and the rest of the world gets Samsung’s proprietary Exynos system.
This SoC features the second-gen custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU, along with the Adreno GPU and the Hexagon NPU for AI tasks. The system includes a Snapdragon X80 5G modem and the Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 Mobile Connectivity System. The company promises “ultra-fast cellular and Wi-Fi 7 speeds. The system also allows users to send and receive messages via satellite, via the Snapdragon Satellite service.
The two companies worked closely together to create this custom version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite to reduce power consumption on Galaxy devices. Galaxy S25 handsets can even access Qualcomm’s Spatio-Temporal Filter (STF.)
This allows for “sharper-than-ever low light video capture capabilities”, even at 8K 30fps, all while “maintaining world-class power consumption efficiency.” Of course, the SoC was also customized to take full advantage of Samsung’s Gemini suite of AI tools.
The Galaxy S25 isn’t the only smartphone to use Snapdragon 8 Elite. The Xiaomi 15, Honor Magic 7 Pro, Asus ROG Phone 9 and Realme GT 7 Pro are expected to utilize the SoC, albeit not the custom version co-designed by Samsung.
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