Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series is going to be more confusing than ever before. We’ve already seen leaks that there would be a non-Pro and a Pro version of this chip, but it looks like there might be even more variants than that.
According to leaker Digital Chat Station over on Weibo, there will be a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 that is a 2nm chip featuring a 2+3+3 next-generation Oyron CPU architecture and supports LPDDR5X RAM. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro will also be 2nm with 2+3+3 next-generation Oryon CPU architecture and support for LPDDR6/5X RAM.
But DCS also mentions a few other chips. Like a 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a 3nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5XX version, and a 3nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Pro/Gen 6. So things are about to get really interesting with Snapdragon this year.
We had already seen leaks that Qualcomm was testing six different Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 variants this year, so this isn’t super surprising.
Why is Qualcomm preparing so many variants of Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6?
For the most part, this comes down to price. Qualcomm’s partners need to shave off a few bucks from their BOM (bill of materials), due to the current memory crisis. While some are opting for less RAM, some models can’t really do that as they’re already at 8GB. So, getting a lesser CPU that is still quite powerful is another way to shave off a few bucks.
Qualcomm has already done this in the past couple of years with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and 8 Gen 5 this year, the Snapdragon 8 Elite and 8 Gen 4 last year. But now they are differentiating them even more. Having two flagship models supporting different RAM types is also a good idea. As LPDDR5X RAM is going to be cheaper than LPDDR6 RAM, though both have gone through the roof recently.
And if that wasn’t enough, it sounds like MediaTek is finally going to beat Qualcomm on performance, with their upcoming 2nm Dimensity 9600.
The post Qualcomm’s Next Chip Lineup Is a Mess, and the Memory Crisis Is to Blame appeared first on Android Headlines.
​Â