Qualcomm has made the future of smartphones cameras more exciting.

This week, Qualcomm made a big announcement. The company just unveiled the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, and even if you don’t closely follow the world of smartphone chips, this is something worth getting excited about. Qualcomm promises significant performance and efficiency improvements compared to the already excellent Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip from last year, which is great news for the flagship Android phones of the coming year.

But there’s more to the Snapdragon 8 Elite than just being more powerful and efficient. It also has the ability to significantly change the way we use the cameras on our phones. How so? I spoke to Judd Heape, Vice President of Product Management at Qualcomm, to better understand, and came out noticeably more excited about the near (and distant) future of our smartphones’ cameras.

Camera Upgrades Behind the Scenes Are Important

A big part of the Snapdragon 8 Elite is what Qualcomm calls the “AI ISP.” ISP (Image Signal Processor) is a standard component in every smartphone chip, including Snapdragon chips, making it easier to process images on your phone’s camera. For the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the AI ISP has a tighter connection to a NPU (Neural Processing Unit) than any previous Snapdragon chip. This may sound like a lot of technical jargon, but it essentially means that important camera features should work much better than before.

What kind of camera features? One of the most exciting things is how the AI ISP should work on improving automatic white balance. Why is this a big deal? “One of the things that cameras frequently get wrong based off of lighting that’s extremely complex, like indoor lighting, outdoor lighting at the same time, if you’re outside in a parking lot and the lights are really orange… things like that,” Heape said. “It can easily mess up your skin tones because of that, and that’s an automatic white balance failure.”

Because this new ISP has a tighter connection to the NPU on the Snapdragon 8 Elite, it can “generate appropriate skin tone regardless of lighting conditions.” What’s really exciting is that these automatic white balance improvements don’t just happen after the photo is taken. You can see these improvements in real-time through the camera lens, meaning the image you see while taking the picture is what you’ll get.

Another promising change is that the new ISP consumes less power. Heape said, “The power consumption of the ISP also dropped due to the new architecture.” “So, in truly interesting use cases, like capturing 4K video at 60 frames per second with HDR, the ISP consumes 25% less power… meaning you’ll have less thermal issues when trying to shoot video.” When it comes to video, the new ISP also works on improving Qualcomm’s “Temporal Noise Filtering.” These filters look at frames of video more than before, so “the video you’re shooting is clearer than it was before. It was good before, but it’s better now.”

Are these flashy AI camera features like Google Pixel 9’s Add Me mode or the numerous camera/photo editing tools in Galaxy AI? No, but can they legitimately lead to better photos and videos for any phone equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Elite processor? Definitely. And this is the kind of AI camera improvements that I want to see more of.

What Does the Future of Smartphone Cameras Look Like?

In addition to the immediate improvements coming with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, Heape also shared some thoughts on what the bigger future of smartphone cameras might look like – and what he, as someone working closely on these things at Qualcomm, wants to see more of.

When talking about improving automatic white balance and seeing those improvements through the camera lens in real-time, Heape acknowledged that “the industry needs to move forward with that. What you see is what you get, that’s really important. It gives the photographer confidence… OEMs need to focus on that.”

Heape was also asked about his “dream application” for developing Qualcomm’s new ISP and what he was most excited to see smartphone companies do with it in the coming years – and I thought his answer was great. As he explained, Heape is interested in “reducing the cost and complexity of the camera system.”

“I think we can get rid of two cameras instead of three in some cases… reducing processing and power… while using AI for ultra-accuracy and using AI to enhance capabilities in low light.” When asked to look beyond that about how he’d like to see AI used to improve the smartphone camera experience compared to what we have today, Heape said he wants to see a world where the camera recognizes you.

“Your camera recognizes you, knows what you like, understands the adjustments you tend to make and the shots you like to take… basically training your camera. It knows the kind of shots you prefer and how you compose them, and as the camera recognizes you over time, it makes those adjustments for you every time you take a picture. I think that’s what we need to get to eventually… somewhat like having a Copilot PC for your camera.”

As someone who hasn’t been impressed with current AI camera tools, I really hope that Heape’s ideal camera future is the future we’re heading towards – a future where AI works in the background and gives you better photos and videos without needing to think about it. I don’t particularly care (or want) AI features that alter my photos into something they’re not. I want my phone to capture the best possible image without me having to think too much about it, and speaking with Heape, it seems like that’s the future he wants to see as well.

I Believe We’re Heading in the Right Direction

Since smartphone brands and chip manufacturers have started going all-in on AI over the past couple of years, I’ve found it hard to really get excited about any of it. We’ve seen great tech demos and cool features here and there, but I haven’t felt anything that really changes how we use our phones – especially when it comes to the camera.

While we still have to see how well the Snapdragon 8 Elite performs and how well its new ISP holds up in the real world – and if Heape’s described camera future is one we’re already heading towards – I’ll admit that I’m genuinely curious and hopeful about all of it. I firmly believe that the best use of AI is to make it work in the background and allow you to use your phone as you normally would but with improvements. Give me better white balance and video recording on any day of the week over shaky photo creation tools. It really seems like that’s the direction Qualcomm is heading towards, and if that’s the future we can look forward to with using smartphone cameras, count me in.