The Samsung Galaxy S25 smartphones are powered by the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC

Samsung Revealed a bunch of new tools In the Unpacked event, but these are probably the worst of the bunch Galaxy S25 smartphones. Smartphones are only as good as the chips they power, and the S25 series features a customized version of them Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite processor System on a chip (SoC.)

Qualcomm calls it “the world’s fastest mobile system-on-a-chip” and it powers every version of the Galaxy S25 worldwide, from Standard to Plus and Ultra. This is only the second time the same chip has been used to power Galaxy S series phones globally. Typically, North America gets the Qualcomm SoC, while the rest of the world gets Samsung’s proprietary Exynos system.

This SoC features a custom 2nd generation Qualcomm Oryon CPU, along with an Adreno GPU and a Hexagon NPU for AI tasks. The system includes a Snapdragon

The two companies worked closely together to create this customized version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite to reduce power consumption on Galaxy devices. Galaxy S25 devices can also access Qualcomm’s Spatio-Temporal Filter (STF.)

This enables “clearer low-light video capture than ever before,” even at 8K at 30fps, all while “maintaining world-class power efficiency.” Of course, the SoC is also customized to take full advantage of Samsung’s Gemini suite of AI tools.

The Galaxy S25 isn’t the only smartphone to use the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The Xiaomi 15, Honor Magic 7 Pro, Asus ROG Phone 9, and Realme GT 7 Pro are all expected to use the SoC, though not the custom version that Samsung co-designed.