Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, has made significant strides in performance, overshadowing its predecessor and even outshining Apple’s offerings in certain benchmarks. The core of this performance leap is the in-house developed Oryon CPU, which has garnered much attention and praise. There’s a suggestion that a name like “Snapdragon 8s Elite” might be more fitting for this breakthrough chip.
Recent leaks from Weibo tipster Smart Pikachu suggest that the Snapdragon 8s Elite could see a launch in the first quarter of 2025. This follows the timeline of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, which was introduced in March of the previous year. The same source indicates that Xiaomi might once again take the lead in adopting this new silicon. Speculation points towards the Xiaomi Civi 5 being the inaugural device to feature the Snapdragon 8s Elite, much like its predecessor, the Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro, which was the first to use the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 back in March 2023. This launch strategy could see Xiaomi maintaining its position at the forefront of new technology integration in smartphones.
The chip is referred to by Smart Pikachu as the “4th generation Snapdragon 8s Extreme Edition”. This is translated text (from Chinese), but it was also rumoured to be an Extreme Edition phone. Furthermore, the “fourth generation” part suggests this is a Snapdragon 8 Elite ‘s’ edition.
Performance-wise, we think that binned ‘s’ variants may be a step below 8 Elite.
