Qualcomm has just confirmed the official name for its next-generation flagship chipset, and it’s a bit of a departure from last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite. The new silicon will be known as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 – which might leave you wondering what happened to Elite Gen 2,3, and 4.
It turns out the company is simply getting back in sync with its original naming convention. The whole thing started back in 2021 with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, followed by the Gen 2 and Gen 3. Last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite was essentially what would have been the Gen 4, so this new chip picks up where that numbering left off.
Under the hood, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is fabbed on TSMC’s N3P 3nm process and is shaping up to be a serious performer. It’s expected to feature custom Oryon CPU cores, with a prime core reportedly hitting 4.6 GHz. There’s also talk of a special “for Galaxy” or Extreme Edition variant that could push that even further to 4.7 GHz.
The GPU is rumoured to run at 1.2 GHz, and early whispers suggest it could deliver record-breaking AnTuTu scores somewhere between 4.2 and 4.4 million points.
As for who’s using it first, Xiaomi has already confirmed that its upcoming 17 series – including the Xiaomi 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max – will be among the first devices powered by the new chip.
This time, the phones are going to come with a secondary screen on their backs, similar to what Xiaomi did with the Mi 11 Ultra back in 2021.