HONOR embraces Snapdragon 8 Elite next-gen silicon with upcoming Magic 7 series

Are you ready for the next generation of smartphone hardware? Earlier today, Qualcomm finally went official with the announcement of its Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, packed to the brim with the latest bells and whistles — and a buttload of cache. Understandably, we’re incredibly eager to start trying out some of the first devices built around this chip for ourselves, and right now we’re learning about how one company is using the new chips, as HONOR shares news of its Magic 7 series.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite is a whole lot of hardware, and beyond just pushing limits in terms of processing power and connectivity, Qualcomm has been emphasizing its AI capabilities for on-device modeling. With Magic 7 phones, HONOR intends to take full advantage of the chip to deliver what it’s calling “the industry’s first on-device AI Agent for an open ecosystem.” The company talks about capabilities here like the AI Agent being able to learn your tastes and order food on your behalf, helping to book travel plans, or just streamlining how you move files around between devices.

That AI processing can do a whole lot more than help you out with tasks like those, and the Magic 7 will tap into its NPU for some extra help when rendering mobile games, using AI to take some load off the GPU. HONOR’s even using it to enhance its Magic Ring connectivity ecosystem, and make it easier to work across different hardware.

All this AI talk sounds fine, and we’re very excited about the Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon — but what about the rest of this hardware? And what’s HONOR planning to do with it all? Well, like we saw the company confirm last week, the main Magic 7 launch is scheduled for October 30. And ahead of that, we’re due to get a closer look at Magic OS 9.0 in just a couple days. Check back with us then for full details on HONOR’s launch plans.