Snapdragon 8 Elite and slim Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition official, Week 43 in review

Ivan, 27 October 2024

Samsung finally unveiled the Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition. It alleviates several pain points from the Z Fold6 with larger displays, a slimmer profile, and a 200MP main cam. It also has larger displays - a 6.5-inch LTPO AMOLED 2X cover screen and an 8-inch LTPO AMOLED 2X folding one. Unfortunately, the device is currently exclusive to South Korea and rumors suggest it will only make its way to China (possibly as the Galaxy W25) without ever stepping foot outside those two markets.

Qualcomm's new super-chip for mobile is here, and it's not called the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. It's the Snapdragon 8 Elite, following Qualcomm's computer chip nomenclature. The new chip is fabbed on TSMC’s 3nm process and promises a 45% boost in CPU performance and 44% improved power efficiency over the SD 8 Gen 3. On the graphics side, Qualcomm is debuting its revamped Adreno GPU which brings a 40% uplift in performance and power savings alongside improved ray-tracing performance. Moving on to the AI side, the new Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU) ensures AI tasks run 45% faster with improved performance per watt.

The first phones with the chip are coming shortly. Xiaomi said its 15 series will be the first to have the chip, and we saw a Geekbench test of the Xiaomi 15.

Samsung Galaxy Z Fold Special Edition is what the original Fold6 should have been

Samsung's overhauled Z Fold6 will be exclusive to South Korea at launch.

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 8 Elite chip with Oryon CPU, 40% faster GPU

Generational CPU, GPU, and AI upgrades alongside the latest X80 modem.

Xiaomi 15 runs Geekbench with Snapdragon 8 Elite and Android 15

The results are impressive.

The OnePlus 13 will also feature the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The phone is coming on October 31 (Halloween, gasp!) in three colors - Blue, Black, and White. We also saw an unboxing of the OnePlus 13 in the wild.

OnePlus 13 gets an official unboxing video before its unveiling

The unorthodox teaser campaign continues.

OnePlus 13 is coming on October 31 in White, Blue, and Black

OnePlus revealed key details about its upcoming flagship.

Android 15 update comes with a huge issue for Pixel 6 owners

It's nasty enough that you should probably hold off on updating.

Huawei announced HarmonyOS Next - its lastest operating system built independently of Android as it aims to transition its devices to an entirely in-house OS. HarmonyOS Next is set to power the current and future generations of Huawei devices in China for now, though a global release was confirmed previously. It will work across a broad range of devices ranging from smartphones to wearables, smart home devices, and car cockpits. Huawei is seeding a public beta version of HarmonyOS Next to users in China. The supported device list includes the Pura 70 series, Huawei Pocket 2, and MatePad Pro 11 (2024).