According to leaks, the long-awaited “Snapdragon 8 Gen 4” chip will bring significant performance boosts. However, it appears that Qualcomm will actually market it under a different name. A teaser for the Xiaomi 15 confirmed that the name of Qualcomm’s next flagship mobile SoC will be Snapdragon 8 Elite, aligning with the company’s laptop chips.
Tipster Digital Chat Station had suggested the name change, but now it’s a phone brand that confirms it. The name change to Snapdragon 8 Elite seems to make sense considering Qualcomm will use its new custom Oryon cores that debuted in its laptop SoCs. For reference, Qualcomm’s latest chips for ARM laptops are called Snapdragon X Elite (the more powerful one) and Snapdragon X Plus (a more affordable variant).
Xiaomi 15 series teaser confirms “Snapdragon 8 Elite” as the name of Qualcomm’s next flagship SoC
So, it seems that Qualcomm will identify its chips for Windows devices using “X” instead of a number. This suggests that a potentially more affordable version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite would be called “Snapdragon 8 Plus,” which could be a bit confusing. “Snapdragon 8s Gen 3” is the name of the affordable version of the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Qualcomm also typically offers Samsung an exclusive version of its most powerful chipset by adding “For Galaxy” to the name. Therefore, “Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy” would be the name of the chip in the upcoming Galaxy S25 Ultra.
The teaser for the Xiaomi 15 series confirms that the phones will arrive on October 23, 2024, in China. That means that Qualcomm will announce the new SoC before that date. The company will host its Snapdragon Summit 2024 event in Maui, Hawaii from October 21 to 23. Qualcomm will probably reveal the chip during the first day of the event.
Some expected improvements
The Snapdragon 8 Elite (formerly known as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4) will be Qualcomm’s first 3nm mobile chip. The SoC’s CPU would have 2x super cores at 4.0 GHz and 6x high-performance cores at 2.8 GHz. This would translate to a 35% performance improvement in single-core tasks and 30% in multi-core tasks compared to its predecessor. It would also bring a powerful next-gen Adreno GPU with advanced ray-tracing capabilities. Of course, it would also boast a new NPU for advanced AI-powered experiences.