Qualcomm's 'Elite' branding should stay exclusive to Oryon-based chips

Qualcomm is nearing a big decision. It's reportedly gearing up to release a new, midrange Snapdragon chip. While this "budget" SoC is rumored to be powered by Arm cores — not the custom Oryon cores powering other Elite chips — it's unclear whether the company will still use "Elite" branding. We've seen reports use both Snapdragon 8s Elite and Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 to refer to the unannounced mobile chip.

The problem? The custom Oryon CPU cores are what make Snapdragon 8 Elite chips, well, "elite." Let's review how we got here.

The switch from Arm to Oryon

Last year, Qualcomm finally achieved its breakthrough moment. It launched the Snapdragon X lineup of laptop and desktop-class systems-on-a-chip (SoCs) in June 2024 that would eventually disrupt the stronghold competitors AMD and Intel had on personal computing. Then, Qualcomm used what it learned to develop the Snapdragon X platform and brought it to mobile with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset.

By now, I've had the chance to review and test multiple Snapdragon X and Snapdragon 8 Elite laptops and phones, respectively. They're both as good as advertised. Snapdragon X brought excellent power efficiency and responsiveness to Windows laptops, and Snapdragon 8 Elite brought massive year-over-year performance improvements to Android smartphones.

Oryon cores are the secret to Qualcomm's major success. The company used its own custom Oryon cores instead of off-the-shelf designs from Arm to make the Snapdragon X, Snapdragon X Plus, and Snapdragon X Elite SoCs. Essentially, it followed the same blueprint Apple used when designing its own silicon.

A quick look at Qualcomm's PC processors reveals that chips with Oryon cores don't always use the Elite brand. That's reserved for Qualcomm's best PC chips, while budget versions with slower clock speeds and/or fewer cores use names like Snapdragon X and Snapdragon X Plus.

But we've never seen a Qualcomm chip branded with the Elite tag that doesn't use custom Oryon cores. Although there are conflicting reports about whether the next Snapdragon 8s mobile processor will get a "Gen 4" or "Elite" brand name, the right option seems clear.

Qualcomm should name the unreleased midrange chip Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 to avoid consumer confusion and keep the Elite brand sacred for the company's standout processors — those with Oryon cores.

What will Qualcomm's next midrange chip be called?

Right now, there's no official word on what Qualcomm will call the next Snapdragon 8s chip. One rumor from reputable leaker Yogesh Brar on X (formerly Twitter) earlier this month said that the SoC was "set to launch soon," referring to it as Snapdragon 8s Elite. More recently, a tip from Digital Chat Station this week on Weibo called the unreleased chip the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4.

Although both rumored names are only speculation at this point, one seems more fitting than the other.

That's because current leaks claim to reveal the upcoming Snapdragon 8s chip's core structure, and custom Oryon cores are absent. According to Digital Chat Station, this processor has a model number of SN8735. It is said to be headlined by a 3.21GHz Cortex-X4 Prime Core, plus three more 3.01GHz Cortex-A720 cores and two 2.80GHz Cortex-A720 cores. The SoC is also expected to include two 2.02GHz Cortex-A720 efficiency cores.

If this configuration turns out to be accurate, the Snapdragon 8s chip will use standard Arm designs rather than Qualcomm's best Oryon cores. This isn't a bad thing, because the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip is expensive, and the "s" variant is supposed to be cheaper. However, it does mean that the Elite branding wouldn't exactly make sense for this particular SoC.

Qualcomm is rumored to make the right move

Qualcomm is a very large company operating in many different verticals, from cellular modems to smartphone and desktop chips. Under those circumstances, it's easy for naming schemes to get convoluted. Just look at what Intel and Sony have done over the years, releasing products like the Intel Core i9 14900K or the Sony WH-1000XM5.

Luckily, Qualcomm seems to be aware of how important branding is for consumer clarity. At MWC Barcelona 2025, it introduced a new naming scheme for its vast portfolio of products. Qualcomm will be used for general products, like modems, with the Snapdragon brand serving consumer products and the Dragonwing brand covering the enterprise market.

Qualcomm may be set up for an interesting decision. On the one hand, using the name Snapdragon 8s Elite would make it clear that the to-be-released chip is part of the same generation as the Snapdragon 8 Elite. On the other hand, using the name Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 would make it clear that the chip isn't using custom Oryon cores.

Only time will tell which name Qualcomm will end up using. Personally, I'm voting for the next Snapdragon 8s SoC to be called the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. While the Elite nomenclature is an excellent brand, it's too good to be diluted. Currently, every Elite chip features Qualcomm's custom Oryon cores, and I think it should stay that way.