What you need to know
- Rumors suggest Qualcomm is working on a "Snapdragon 8 Elite 2" and its reveal could occur earlier toward the end of September.
- Companies could also look to launch smartphones with the chip in October, potentially early in the month.
- The Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 is rumored to rock heavy-hitting "enhanced Pegasus cores" with 5GHz clock speeds.
The next generation of phones is always a hot topic, and new rumors claim those devices could pop up sooner than before.
There's speculation that Qualcomm could reveal its next flagship SoC even sooner in 2025, which would mean an earlier Summit. These rumors stem from Digital Chat Station (DCS) on Weibo (via SamMobile). According to the tipster, Qualcomm is supposedly preparing to debut a "Snapdragon 8 Elite 2" at the end of September.
The post adds that the company's "internal schedule" has remained "the same."
Additionally, the tipster claims smartphone OEMs will "basically release" the first batch of phones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 "in October." While the Weibo post didn't offer any insight into potential specs, SamMobile chimed in with some rumors. The Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 could achieve 5GHz speeds for its main core.
The publication states this is tipped to come off the back of Qualcomm's "enhanced Pegasus cores." The chip may come paired with the Adreno 840 GPU for a strong gaming experience, as well as LPDDR6 RAM support.
Qualcomm's moving fast
The alleged timeline change might only bump things up by a few weeks. Qualcomm held its Summit in Hawaii last year from October 21 to October 23. With the current rumors, perhaps we're looking at a potential Summit date during the week of September 22. That might also (if we consider the rumors) push smartphone makers to deploy their newest Snapdragon 8 Elite 2-ready devices in the first couple of weeks of October.
We can use Xiaomi's 2024 Summit announcement as an example. The Chinese OEM stated its devices would "be the first" to use the original Elite globally. A week later, the phones launched in China; however, their global debut wouldn't happen for a while. The main takeaway is that Xiaomi's launch occurred one week after Qualcomm's Summit.
There's a chance history could repeat itself, but just a little faster this time.
It's also worth remembering that the Snapdragon 8 Elite launched with two prime cores, clocking out at 4.32GHz. This pair was complemented by six 3.53GHz performance cores. Rumors currently claim Qualcomm could increase its heavy-hitters by ~0.7GHz for even stronger performance. It remains to be seen if price hike worries come around again, like they did with the first.
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