The first Snapdragon 8 Elite handheld might not have a Snapdragon 8 Elite after all

AYN launched the Odin 3 late last year, and it was positioned as the first gaming handheld with the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. However, it turns out the Odin 3 technically isn’t equipped with this chip after all.

An AYN representative recently asked Retro Handhelds to make changes to their articles covering the Odin 3. The manufacturer requested that the name of the handheld’s chipset be changed from the Snapdragon 8 Elite to the Dragonwing Q8. It’s believed that Qualcomm asked AYN to make the change.

For the uninitiated, 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 Dragonwing Q8 series chipset had the model number CQ8725S. This model does appear on Qualcomm’s website when performing a search, but all results seem to be locked behind a login page.

Nevertheless, AYN has also updated the Odin 3’s product page to remove all mention of the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. Check out the comparison in the screenshots below.

The new chip’s listed specs still match up with those of the 8 Elite, though. AYN says it has 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 indeed a variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Does this mean AYN was misleading customers about the Odin 3’s chipset? On the one hand, the Dragonwing chip appears to be a tweaked version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, down to the same apparent CPU, GPU, and 3nm process. So these specs suggest performance and core features in line with the 8 Elite.

On the other hand, AYN could’ve probably been more transparent from the get-go to avoid this awkward situation. The manufacturer presumably figured that using the Snapdragon 8 Elite branding was more alluring to customers than the Dragonwing name. We also don’t know everything about this Dragonwing processor, such as connectivity, the chip manufacturer (TSMC or Samsung), and camera/display support. It’s theoretically possible that the two chips differ in these areas. In fact, Retro Handhelds suggests that the Dragonwing chip lacks a cellular modem. That wouldn’t be a surprise, as most handhelds don’t have cellular connectivity.

It wouldn’t be the first time that an industrial/IoT chipset powered a consumer device, though. 2023’s Fairphone 5 launched with the QCM6490 processor, which is retroactively part of the Dragonwing series. The manufacturer also promised that the Fairphone 5 would get up to 10 years of software updates. In fact, Fairphone said it chose this chipset because it enabled a longer update commitment.

We’ve nevertheless asked AYN and Qualcomm for comment regarding these changes. We’ve also asked the two companies about the differences between the two chips (if any). We’ll update our article as soon as either party responds to our query.