Yes, premium smartphones are getting more expensive every year; you wouldn’t believe it. Much of the blame lies with the price of the chip, which has been trending upward for years. Well, it seems things are far from changing. Reports say Qualcomm’s next most powerful chipset for “Ultra” phones, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, is about to hit a historic $300 pricing milestone.
A record-breaking price tag for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro
According to tech tipster @yabhishekhd on X/Twitter, the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro (also known as the SM8975) is expected to cost manufacturers over $300 per unit. Some estimates even push that figure to $330. To put that in perspective, the current Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 already costs around $280.
The main reason for this jump is the shift to TSMC’s advanced 2nm N2P process. This technology promises enormous performance gains but at staggering costs. In fact, it is said that a single 2nm wafer is rumored to cost approximately $30,000. This is nearly double the price of previous generations.
The “Pro” vs. “Standard” divide
For the first time, Qualcomm appears to be taking a page out of Apple’s playbook by creating a clear hardware gap between its flagship chips. We are looking at a dual strategy for late 2026:
- The Standard (SM8950): Designed for mainstream flagships, offering great performance with LPDDR5X support and an Adreno 845 GPU.
- The Pro (SM8975): A showpiece for “Ultra” devices. This model will support the new LPDDR6 RAM and UFS 5.0 storage. It could also sport a more powerful Adreno 850 GPU with a lot more graphics memory.
What this means for your wallet
Top brands like Samsung, Xiaomi, and OPPO are confirmed to be adopting the Pro variant for their top-tier models. They could mount it on models such as the rumored Xiaomi 18 Pro Max and the Galaxy S27 Ultra. However, other manufacturers might pivot toward MediaTek’s Dimensity 9600 to keep their prices competitive.
While these figures depend on final volume contracts, there’s a clear trend. With memory chip prices skyrocketing amid the ongoing global shortage, the “premium” that users will have to pay to access the most powerful mobile hardware available aims to be pricier than ever.
The post Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro Could Hit Historic Pricing: ‘Ultra’ Phones to Get More Expensive Than Ever appeared first on Android Headlines.
