According to recent reports, Qualcomm may be working on a new chip called the “Snapdragon 8 Plus” that will upend the high-end mid-range market in late 2025. The chip, internally referred to as the SM8845, may be a less expensive substitute for the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, which is anticipated to power the top-tier Android flagships of the upcoming year.
Strategy:
The Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 is anticipated to debut in Q3 and serve as Qualcomm’s flagship processor for 2025. The chip, which is based on TSMC’s 3nm process and has unique Oryon CPU cores, is anticipated to improve efficiency and performance significantly. It will probably be used in devices like the Galaxy S26 Ultra and other ultra-premium models. However, preliminary indications indicate that costs may increase beyond the already pricey 8 Elite.
The new Snapdragon 8 Plus may be able to help with that. This chip, which is anticipated to launch in Q4 2025, is a completely new tier and not a direct replacement for the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4. It is said to be more reasonably priced and to have many of the same features as the Elite 2, including the same GPU architecture.
The concept appears to provide near-flagship performance (at last) without the ultra-flagship price tag, which may help smartphones dubbed “flagship killers.” According to the tipster, phones with this chip might have much bigger batteries than flagship models with the Elite 2, possibly 7,000mAh.
Before this, Qualcomm had positioned the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 as a more subdued variant of the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. But when the 8s Gen 4 arrived, that approach changed. The 8s Gen 4 only matched the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 performance from the previous year, rather than providing a genuine substitute for the flagship chip. To close the gap between its full-fledged flagship lineup and the more affordable “S” series, Qualcomm appears to be repositioning itself.
