Samsung used Qualcomm's flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy, in all its Galaxy S25 series phones globally. So, people don't have to deal with Exynos this year. Qualcomm worked with Samsung to bring exclusive features and optimizations to Galaxy S25 series devices, including satellite messaging.
Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy brings satellite messaging to Galaxy S25
Qualcomm has revealed that the Galaxy S25, Galaxy S25+, and Galaxy S25 Ultra are the first commercially available devices to feature Snapdragon Satellite. It is Qualcomm's system that allows a phone to connect directly to low-earth orbit satellites (via narrowband NTN) to send and receive messages.
This feature is built into Android but requires specific hardware to work. The Galaxy S25 series has the necessary hardware and software to send and receive messages directly via satellites. This feature can be extremely useful and even lifesaving in certain emergency situations when there is no cellular network nearby.
Samsung didn't highlight this feature during its Galaxy Unpacked 2025 keynote, and we don't know the reason behind it. Maybe the company is still working to get this feature working via partnerships with satellite companies and getting clearance for the feature from governments worldwide.
Snapdragon Satellite was a part of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip, but no smartphone brand used that feature because back then, Android didn't support that feature natively. So, Qualcomm dropped the feature abruptly. However, Android 15 natively supports satellite messaging. Apple has been equipping its iPhones with a similar feature since the iPhone 14.
You can watch our experience of using the Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy S25+ in the video below.
What is unique about Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy processor?
The Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy has slightly higher CPU and GPU clock speeds. It results in a 37% faster CPU, 30% faster GPU, and a 40% faster NPU compared to the chips used in Galaxy S24 series phones. The chip is fabricated on TSMC's 3nm process node, so it is more power efficient than previous-generation chips.
Qualcomm worked with Samsung to implement a ProScaler, which can achieve a 40% improvement in display image scaling quality, into the chip. It also embedded Samsung's mobile Digital Natural Image engine (mDNIe) in this Snapdragon chip's ISP display signal processor (DSP) to improve display efficiency.
The companies also collaborated to implement Samsung's image processing technologies into the Snapdragon chip's ISP for improved image and video capture.
The powerful NPU inside the Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy allows a lot of Galaxy AI features to work locally on the device. You can read more about the new Galaxy AI features in this article.
