Qualcomm today unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform, which features a next-generation custom Qualcomm-designed Oryon CPU instead of the semi-custom Kryo Arm-based chips from prior SoCs. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Elite features the "world's fastest mobile CPU," outperforming even the A18 Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro series.
The Oryon CPU is built on a 3-nanometer process, much like Apple's most recent chips. It has eight cores in total, including two prime cores and six performance cores, and it is able to reach peak CPU speeds of 4.32 GHz. Qualcomm also claims that it has the "industry's largest shared cache" to enable "insanely fast data retrieval." There's also a new "Adreno" GPU, and Qualcomm says it uses a "revolutionary sliced architecture" for faster performance and battery life optimizations.
Qualcomm built the chip with generative AI in mind, and it has an included Qualcomm AI Engine with Multimodal Gen AI that Qualcomm says can better understand voice, text, and images, viewing the world through the camera on a smartphone to help with tasks.
Compared to prior-generation Qualcomm chips, the Snapdragon 8 Elite features 45 percent faster CPU performance and 44 percent better power efficiency.
The chip integrates the Qualcomm Snapdragon X80 5G modem with Wi-Fi 7 and 5G support. It will be used in Android-based devices from companies like Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and more.
Tuesday January 6, 2026 3:04 am PST by Tim Hardwick
CES 2026 has just provided a first glimpse of the folding display technology that Apple is expected to use in its upcoming foldable iPhone. At the event, Samsung Display briefly showcased its new crease-less foldable OLED panel beside a Galaxy Z Fold 7, and according to SamMobile, which saw the test booth before it was abruptly removed, the new panel "has no crease at all" in comparison.
The ...
Wednesday January 7, 2026 12:57 pm PST by Eric Slivka
JPMorgan Chase has reached a deal to take over operation of the Apple Card, reports The Wall Street Journal. Barring any "last minute hiccups," the deal should be announced shortly after over a year of negotiations.
Reports began circulating over two years ago that current Apple Card issuer Goldman Sachs was looking to end its partnership with Apple as part of an effort to scale back on...
Wednesday January 7, 2026 5:27 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Logitech users on macOS found themselves locked out of their mouse customizations yesterday after the company let a security certificate expire, breaking both its Logi Options+ and G HUB configuration apps.
Logitech devices like its MX Master series mice and MX Keys keyboards stopped working properly as a result of the oversight, with users unable to access their custom scrolling setup,...
Wednesday January 7, 2026 2:51 pm PST by Juli Clover
Though it's been just a few months since iOS 26 launched, we're already hearing rumors about the next-generation version of iOS, iOS 27. iOS 27 will be introduced at Apple's June WWDC 2026 event before it launches in September 2026.
We don't know all of the details about iOS 27 yet, but we do have some information about what to expect.
"Snow Leopard" Update
iOS 27 will apparently focus...
Thursday January 8, 2026 2:56 am PST by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
One thing worth...
Wednesday January 7, 2026 11:27 am PST by Eric Slivka
OpenAI today announced the launch of ChatGPT Health, a dedicated section of ChatGPT where users can ask health-related questions completely separated from their main ChatGPT experience.
For more personalized responses, users can connect various health data services such as Apple Health, Function, MyFitnessPal, Weight Watchers, AllTrails, Instacart, and Peloton. Last month, MacRumors discovere...
Apple is not expected to release a standard iPhone 18 model this year, according to a growing number of reports that suggest the company is planning a significant change to its long-standing annual iPhone launch cycle.
Despite the immense success of the iPhone 17 in 2025, the iPhone 18 is not expected to arrive until the spring of 2027, leaving the iPhone 17 in the lineup as the latest...
Monday January 5, 2026 11:28 am PST by Juli Clover
Apple has designed a limited edition version of the AirPods Pro 3 to celebrate Lunar New Year, and customers in select countries can purchase them starting today. The Year of the Horse Special Edition AirPods Pro 3 feature a unique horse emoji character that's otherwise unavailable.
Customers in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore are able to buy the AirPods, and they'll be...
Is the claim 'fastest clock speed' or 'fastest when we put eleventy billion cores against one Apple core'?
Their footnote says compared to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and a 45% ST improvement would put them at 3,101. A18 Pro is 3350ish. That's wouldn't be the fastest so it sounds like more Qualcomm bullcrap.
Multithread would be about 9,690 compared to 8,080ish, but that's with eight cores to six...so again, not an even comparison, but not a surprise from Qualcomm.
And their launch partners are mostly known benchmark cheaters, so I hope the testers take that into account.
If all of this is true, we knew it was a matter of time that the competition would catch up. Even Intel is making great strides with moving x86 closer to ARM (although they're still quite a ways off). Apple Silicon truly revolutionized the industry, and Apple should get a lot of credit for it. Although I'm quite critical of Apple in a lot of aspects, the M3 15" MacBook Air is the best laptop I've ever owned, and in my opinion the best laptop ever built.
