Qualcomm unveiled the fastest chip ever made for Android devices, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, a few hours ago. It is a 3nm chip that brings massive performance and efficiency improvements. Thanks to Bluetooth 6.0 and an enhanced 5G modem, it also improves connectivity. It could also bring Ultra-Wideband (UWB) to even the base Galaxy S25.
Snapdragon 8 Elite is first Qualcomm chip with built-in UWB, helping the Galaxy S25
Qualcomm has confirmed that the Snapdragon 8 Elite features built-in UWB. This is the first Qualcomm chip with UWB onboard, which means smartphone brands like Samsung won't have to use a separate UWB chip. The company has managed to fit Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and UWB on the FastConnect 7900 system, which is fully integrated into the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
Previous Snapdragon chips supported UWB but required a separate chip and possibly additional licensing fees. This meant that not all smartphone makers included UWB in their phones due to cost and space-related concerns. Now, they won't have to pay anything extra, as UWB is delivered as part of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.
It means that Samsung could finally bring UWB connectivity to even the base Galaxy S25 model, improving tracking accuracy with Galaxy SmartTag devices. Previous base Galaxy S devices, like the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S24, lacked UWB as Samsung probably wanted to save costs of additional hardware and licensing and to make the Plus and Ultra models look better than the base model.
However, we still need to wait and see whether Samsung brings UWB to the base Galaxy S25. The South Korean firm could theoretically disable UWB via software to make the Galaxy S25+ and the Galaxy S25 Ultra look better on paper. To refresh your memory, the Galaxy S21 Ultra was Samsung's first phone to feature UWB connectivity.
Samsung is also expected to bring satellite connectivity to the Galaxy S25 series for emergency messaging and calling in areas where cellular networks aren't available.
