Now that we’ve had a couple of days to digest all the newness of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, which will power a number of flagship phones over the next year, what’s actually new? What can you expect to see coming to your next flagship phone? Let’s go over it all.
Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme
For the first time, Qualcomm is using two different flagship mobile processors in its lineup. So we have the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, the successor to the Gen 5, and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, which is another level above that. But the differences go far beyond clock speeds.
Both chips actually have a max clock speed of 5.01GHz. Which is the fastest clockspeed on a mobile chip right now, even Apple’s A20 Pro is only 4.93GHz.
One of the major differences is the packaging. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 puts the memory right on top of the die, making the package as small as possible. This is how flagship processors have been packaged for many years. However, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 moves the memory so it’s offset. Allowing OEMs to cool the chip more easily. This is why we’re seeing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 in larger phones like the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max. This is because the ‘Extreme’ model is physically larger than the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6.
This is a big reason why many gaming phones are reportedly looking to use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 over the regular chip this year. It does provide better performance: 13% vs. the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, whereas the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 is only 10% over the Gen 5, though the single-core performance is much, much higher. There are also more cooling options available.
Advanced on-device AI and Agentic capabilities
I know you don’t want to hear it, but AI. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series will bring advanced on-device AI and Agentic AI capabilities, as the platform is built to support the “agentic revolution,” enabling complex reasoning and multi-threaded operations on-device. Including support for larger models (up to 30 billion parameters) and the ability to handle complex, multi-turn user intents locally.
What this means for the end-user is that your next phone could support more AI features and do them faster. Think of things like photo editing; right now, much of it is done in the cloud. With the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, you could see more of that done on-device, in mere seconds.
8 years of kernel updates
This doesn’t sound like a big deal, but it actually is. Qualcomm is now publicly committing to providing 8 years of kernel updates for its premium-tier processors. This will make it easier for its partners — HONOR, Xiaomi, Samsung, Motorola, etc. — to offer longer update windows.
Currently, Samsung guarantees 7 years of updates for its flagship devices; HONOR does so for a few, as does Motorola. Google also guarantees 7 years of updates, but they no longer use Qualcomm silicon in Pixel phones.
So this means that the new crop of Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6-powered phones can receive updates for much longer. That’s a big deal now that the average length of ownership is over 4 years.
5GHz is bonkers
Your next flagship phone, granted if it’s a Snapdragon-powered device, will have bonkers clock speeds. We’re looking at 5 GHz on both the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. That is pretty incredible, and the first for a mobile CPU.
So what does this mean in the real world? Well, as Qualcomm explained to us this week at the Snapdragon Summit, it means that when you throw a lot at your phone, it’ll keep up. You won’t need that full 5 GHz power all the time, but when you do, it’s available. So your phone should never feel slow.
This will also give you higher benchmark scores, but as Qualcomm has been stressing to us this week, benchmarks don’t equal real-world use. Which is something we’ve been preaching for years. Though benchmarks are the best way to see performance gains year over year. 5 GHz is also a cool bragging right to tell your friends, though I’m sure most of them won’t care.
The move to 2nm
Moving to 2nm is a big deal. Sure, Qualcomm isn’t the first to move to 2nm; Apple and MediaTek have already launched 2nm chips, but it’s still a big deal. Moving to 2nm means that we’re looking at smaller physical sizes for these chips. Allowing OEMs to fill the phone with other components, like a better vapor chamber, a larger battery, or even better cameras. 2nm also brings along some really impressive performance gains. As we saw in our benchmarking, we’re looking at about an 85% improvement in single-core performance. Which is quite impressive, and not something you typically see year over year.
Despite Qualcomm not mentioning 2nm on-stage even once, it is still a big deal to move from 3nm down to 2nm.
But Qualcomm is also bringing some serious efficiency gains this time around. We’re looking at roughly 20% less power, which will translate to serious battery gains even without using larger batteries. We’ve already seen this play out with Apple’s A20 Pro in the new iPhone 18 Pro models.
On the gaming front, we’re also seeing huge gains, with around 44% better graphics performance and 40% better power efficiency. Those are gains you’ll see when you play games on a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6-powered phone. This is a major reason gaming phones typically use Snapdragon rather than Dimensity; the Adreno GPU is truly unmatched. And now with the new Adreno Neural Fusion feature, it’s going to take things even further.
Higher prices
This last part is unfortunate, but the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 also means higher prices for your next phone. As if it wasn’t already bad enough, with the memory crisis driving up prices. Qualcomm told partners that starting September 1, they would see a double-digit increase in the price of its chips. Qualcomm chips are already expensive; they’re pretty pricey. And on top of that, OEMs have to pay royalties to Qualcomm to fully utilize these chips.
This will result in even higher prices for consumers. Because where are companies going to make up for this higher cost? Either they’ll opt for a cheaper chip, like the MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro, or they’re going to raise the sale price. We’ve already seen a number of phones increase by $100 or more this past year, and we expect even higher price hikes next year. Possibly later this year, once more of these Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 phones start to leave China.
Of course, Qualcomm never talks about pricing on any of its chips; no chipmaker does. For Qualcomm, I believe a big part of this is that partners pay different rates for these chips. Samsung might pay less than a smaller company like Nothing because of the sheer volume of chips it buys, and Qualcomm doesn’t want to lose Samsung as a customer, of course.
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