Qualcomm introduces Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 smartphone chips
Qualcomm has introduced two flagship smartphone processors, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, at its annual Snapdragon Summit. The company is positioning both chips around on-device artificial intelligence, including more personalised AI agents, while the Extreme version is designed to run a 30-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model locally.
Motorola also announced the Motorola Signature 27, which will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and is expected to become generally available sometime this year. Qualcomm said it has been working on more than 40 AI devices, but the launch reflects its view that phones will remain a primary place for people to use AI.
Local AI features and model capacity
Both new processors include sensing hubs capable of running small models with up to 200 million parameters. Qualcomm said this hardware can support a locally run personal scribe that distinguishes between speakers, as well as memory built from a person’s usage to improve suggestions for task automation.
The company also said the platform can run a complete voice-in, voice-out agent. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 adds a new accelerator element intended to run models more efficiently, while the Extreme edition extends local model capacity through mixture-of-experts processing. In this approach, a 30-billion-parameter model activates only a subset of parameters for a given task.
The comparison with Qualcomm’s AI wearable device strategy underscores Qualcomm’s wider effort to place AI processing across device categories, while these new processors concentrate that capability in smartphones. Apple introduced a 20-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model at WWDC in June as part of the third generation of its foundation models.
Camera, video and call processing
Qualcomm said its new CPU provides pixel-level camera control for more professional-style imaging experiences, alongside improved stabilisation and motion understanding. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 supports 8K video at 60 frames per second and 4K recording at 240 frames per second for ultra-HD slow motion.
The Extreme model also enables the Advanced Professional Video codec for professional-level recording. Across both chips, AI can enhance vocals and reduce noise, and Qualcomm’s voice bubble technology is intended to isolate a user’s noise during calls.
Business implication
For businesses building mobile products, the announcement makes local transcription, voice interaction and selected AI automation features more relevant to device planning, while deployment decisions should still distinguish between workloads that fit on a handset and those that require cloud infrastructure.