Qualcomm has confirmed the leaks around the naming of its next generation of flagship mobile processor, which will be called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, jumping generations from its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which was launched around the same time last year.
The American chipset maker also confirmed that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will make its debut at its Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii, on September 23.
Snapdragon’s naming scheme has become a bit of a mystery among the tech community in recent years, with the 2023 Snapdragon flagship called Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, its successor the 8 Elite, and now the 8 Elite Gen 5.
Qualcomm tried to make sense of the naming scheme in a blog post, stating, “It might look like we skipped generations, but the truth is simpler — and more powerful. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 marks the fifth generation of our premium 8-series platforms since we introduced our new single digit naming and visual identity. By aligning with Gen 5, we’re reinforcing its leadership position and simplifying how consumers understand our product roadmap.”
It remains to be seen how many tech enthusiasts will be convinced by this explanation. In any case, the new chipset is expected to power most of the flagship Android devices in the coming months and next year.
Xiaomi, for instance, has already announced that its upcoming Xiaomi 17 series will be the first Android devices to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.
Ahead of the launch of the 8 Elite Gen 5, a leaked Geekbench result of the chipset has started popping up. The leaked score is said to be from the Xiaomi 17 series, with the chipset getting a single-core score of 3025 and a multi-core score of 9178.
For reference, the Snapdragon 8 Elite devices I tested last year, the OnePlus 13 (Review) and iQOO 13 (Review), got GeekBench 6 scores of 3024 and 9158, and 3016 and 9445 on single and multi-core scores, respectively.
Devices likely to be powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5:
- Samsung Galaxy S26 series
