Your Odin 3 Might Not Actually Use the Snapdragon 8 Elite, but There’s More to the Story
Retro Handhelds • • technology
Key Points:
- AYN was asked by Qualcomm to change the chipset name in their Odin 3 articles from "Snapdragon 8 Elite" to "Dragonwing Q8" to avoid confusion, as the latter is a specialized variant.
- The Dragonwing Q8 is a tuned version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, optimized for gaming handhelds by removing camera processing and 5G modules, improving performance, lowering temperatures, and stabilizing Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
- Qualcomm categorizes the Dragonwing Q8 as an Internet of Things (IoT) chip, distinct from the Snapdragon 8 Series which targets smartphones, and the specific Odin 3 SoC model "CQ8725S" is a variant of another IoT chip.
- This naming and chipset variant situation mirrors the previous AYN Odin 2, which used a similar IoT chip variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, highlighting a pattern in AYN's hardware choices.
- AYN has since updated their Odin 3 marketing materials to replace all mentions of the Snapdragon 8 Elite with the Qualcomm Dragonwing Q8 following Qualcomm's request.
