The first Snapdragon 8 Elite handheld may not have a Snapdragon 8 Elite

AYN launched the Odin 3 late last year, and it was positioned as the first gaming handheld with a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. However, it turns out that Odin 3 is technically not equipped with this chip.

An AYN representative recently asked retro handheld To make changes to your articles covering Odin 3. The manufacturer requested that the name of the handheld chipset be changed from Snapdragon 8 Elite to Dragonwing Q8. It is believed that Qualcomm asked AYN to make the change.

For starters, Qualcomm’s Dragonwing chip line is used for IoT and industrial applications. So it’s somewhat strange to see this chipset in a gaming handheld. The outlet dug a little deeper and found that the model number of the Dragonwing Q8 series chipset was CQ8725S. This model shows up on Qualcomm’s website when searching, but all results are locked behind a login page.

Nevertheless, AYN has also updated the Odin 3 product page to remove all mention of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. See the comparison in the screenshot below.

However, the listed specifications of the new chip still match those of the 8 Elite. AYN says it features a 3nm design, an octa-core Oryon CPU clocked at 4.32GHz, and an Adreno 830 GPU. This suggests that the Dragonwing CQ8725S chip is actually a variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Does this mean that AYN was misleading customers about the Odin 3’s chipset? On the one hand, the Dragonwing chip appears to be a modified version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, limited to the same obvious CPU, GPU, and 3nm process. So these specifications suggest the corresponding performance and key features of the 8 Elite.

On the other hand, AYN probably could have been more transparent from the beginning to avoid this awkward situation. The manufacturer likely figured that using the Snapdragon 8 Elite branding was more attractive to customers than the Dragonwing name. We don’t know everything about this Dragonwing processor, like connectivity, chip manufacturer (TSMC or Samsung), and camera/display support. It’s theoretically possible that the two chips differ in these areas. In fact, retro handheld Suggests that the Dragonwing chip lacks a cellular modem. This wouldn’t be a surprise, since most handhelds don’t have cellular connectivity.

However, this wouldn’t be the first time an industrial/IoT chipset has powered a consumer device. Fairphone 5 of 2023 launched with Dragonwing QCM6490 processor, the manufacturer has promised up to 10 years of software updates. In fact, Fairphone said it chose this chipset because it enables a longer update commitment.

Nevertheless, we have sought comment from AYN and Qualcomm regarding these changes. We have also asked both the companies about the differences (if any) between the two chips. We will update our article as soon as either party responds to our question.