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Galaxy Z Fold 7 might use lower cost binned Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset

By Alan Friedman

Published: Jan 20, 2025, 12:27 AM

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The Galaxy Z Fold 6 partially open and held by PhoneArena's Vic with the rear of the phone facing the camera.

Since the Galaxy Z Fold 7 has yet to be unveiled, this is a picture of the Galaxy Z Fold 6. | Image credit-PhoneArena

Qualcomm has just announced a new version of its Snapdragon 8 Elite application processor (AP) with a model number SM8750-3-AB. Reportedly developed just for foldable and super-thin phones, this version of Qualcomm's flagship AP has one less CPU core giving it seven instead of eight. Two prime cores running at a clock speed of 4.32GHz are included along with five high-performance cores running at 3.53GHz.

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The seven-core chipset won't cost as much as the octa-core Snapdragon 8 Elite AP giving some manufacturers an incentive for using these binned chips on some lower volume devices. The seven-core Snapdragon 8 Elite could end up in the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7, the Galaxy Z Fold 7 SE, and the Galaxy S25 Slim. Sammy's home-grown Exynos 2500 AP might power the Galaxy Z Flip 7 and the Galaxy Z Flip FE will be equipped with the Exynos 2400.

A binned chip has been sorted based on some difference in performance it shows compared with the standard version of the chip. While the seven-core version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite should generate less heat than the regular eight-core variant, it also might deliver less performance. The seven-core Snapdragon 8 Elite would be expected to show 2% less performance than the regular eight-core chip in the AnTuTu benchmark test and 7% less in the Geekbench multi-core benchmark test.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite could have a binned version with one less CPU core.

The cut down version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite has seven CPU cores instead of the eight found on the regular version of the AP. | Image credit-Qualcomm

The seven-core Snapdragon 8 Elite features the Adreno 830 GPU with support for ray tracing, HDR gaming, AI-powered frame upscaling (Game Super Resolution), and AI-powered frame generation (Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.1). The application processor can power QHD+ displays (1440p) refreshing at speeds up to 240Hz and power 4K screens refreshing at 60Hz. It supports video formats such as Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG.

The chip features a built-in Image Signal Processor (ISP) that supports a camera sensor up to 320MP and captures images with zero shutter lag from a 108MP camera. It can also capture full-resolution images from up to three 38MP cameras at the same time with zero shutter lag. As for video recording, it will support 4K 120fps filming along with 8K 30fps recording. Of course, in this day and age, it is no surprise that the SM8750-3-AB has a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI processing allowing photographs to show sharper details and less noise.

This version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, called the "cut down" version includes a built-in modem that supports 5G connectivity along with high-speed mmWave and sub 6GHz airwaves. The AP will support download data speeds up to 10Gbps (good luck finding a network that runs this fast) and upload speeds up to 3.5Gbps.

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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.