{"id":860099,"date":"2026-09-25T11:26:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/860099\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:26:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T11:26:10","slug":"qualcomms-new-elite-sound-chip-might-finally-deliver-the-wi-fi-earbud-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/860099\/","title":{"rendered":"Qualcomm\u2019s new \u2018Elite\u2019 sound chip might finally deliver the Wi-Fi earbud dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">What if your wireless earbuds \u2014 or audio glasses \u2014 could stream high-quality lossless audio that doesn\u2019t cut out when you leave your phone on the bedside charger or buried in the couch? Qualcomm\u2019s new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.qualcomm.com\/audio\/products\/snapdragon-sound-elite-gen-2\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2<\/a> is its first to integrate \u201cmicro-power Wi-Fi 6E\u201d right into the chip, so they can connect directly to your home Wi-Fi network, and from there to the cloud.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">If that sounds like a familiar promise, it\u2019s probably because Qualcomm promised something similar back in 2023 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2023\/10\/24\/23930039\/qualcomm-snapdragon-sound-s7-pro-announced-earbuds-wifi\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">with the \u201cS7 Pro sound platform\u201d<\/a> and its Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN) tech, saying that Wi-Fi earbuds can do what Bluetooth alone cannot. Namely, 24-bit 96kHz lossless audio that can\u2019t fit into Bluetooth\u2019s meager bandwidth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">But that old 7-series platform required a separate Wi-Fi chip to give you Wi-Fi earbuds, and it seems that wasn\u2019t a winning formula for getting makers of incredibly tiny devices to adopt the tech! In fact, we\u2019ve only ever heard of one: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/news\/622452\/xiaomi-buds-5-pro-are-the-first-to-deliver-on-qualcomms-promise-of-wi-fi-earbuds\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Xiaomi\u2019s 2025 Buds 5 Pro<\/a>, which didn\u2019t get a global release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Now that Wi-Fi no longer requires an extra chip, perhaps the idea can take off. Qualcomm says the Elite is also 30 percent smaller, consumes up to 40 percent less power, and has twice the AI processing capabilities of the previous gen chip, all of which should be music to device makers\u2019 ears.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">So far, Qualcomm says it\u2019s working with HP on one specific unnamed product, is \u201cworking closely with Bose,\u201d and is \u201cpioneering a new category of intelligent hearables\u201d (read: earbuds with built-in cameras) with Cleer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What if your wireless earbuds \u2014 or audio glasses \u2014 could stream high-quality lossless audio that doesn\u2019t cut&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":860100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[166,172,74],"class_list":["post-860099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-gadgets","tag-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=860099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/860099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/860100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=860099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=860099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=860099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}