What you need to know
- A tipster claims that Qualcomm is starting to test its alleged “Snapdragon 8s Elite” and its core setup has supposedly been leaked.
- The chip may arrive with a 1+3+2+2 array like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with one Prime core at 3.21GHz.
- Again, rumors claim the chip is eyeing the more affordable/cheap line up of phones and could debut during Q1 2025 with iQOO and Redmi.
- A previous leak about the 8s Elite from December doubles down on what we’ve heard now, as well as its assumed model number.
Our typical top-of-the-line flagships received the Snapdragon 8 Elite, but Qualcomm is reportedly working on a lesser-strength twin.
Rumors about such a reduced-powered SoC stem from Digital Chat Station (DCS) on Weibo (via Android Authority). According to the leak, the tipster claims the new chip will be called the “Snapdragon 8s Elite” and it could see a 1+3+2+2 core configuration.
DCS went into those alleged specs, stating the SoC could see one core — which is speculated to be a Prime core — at 3.21GHz.
The post adds that the 8s Elite could hold three cores at 3.01GHz, two cores at 2.80GHz, and two additional cores at 2.02GHz. DCS purports that the 8s Elite will be joined by the Adreno 825 GPU. Interestingly, the alleged 8s Elite has already gone through Geekbench for performance scoring.
DCS states the early power specifications show that the chip achieved a score of 1,967 for its single-core and 5,827 during the multi-core stage. For context, the tipster compared it to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 from 2023, which achieved 2,200 and 7,000 scores, respectively.
Curiously, this isn’t the first time we’ve heard rumors suggesting the “8s Elite” will be weaker than the 8 Elite and the 8 Gen 3. In December, DCS stated such a fact, accompanied by a leak by another tipster on X. With that, it seems likely that the chip could be for 2025’s midrange devices instead of those of a higher tier. Those rumors also claimed the chip contained the model number SM8735 and would be purely “based on ARM” and not Qualcomm’s newest Oryon cores.
Those old rumors also speculated on the chip’s release, which could fall somewhere within Q1 2025 (no later than March). DCS’ recent leak states the chip could appear on the upcoming iQOO and Redmi phones, which may line up with this assumed Q1 release.
The same Weibo tipster floated the theory that this upcoming flagship chip variant could push phones to pack ~7,000mAh batteries. Such devices are reportedly in the works already, but that rumor involves Realme — at least, for now.