We’ve grown used to seeing new Snapdragon reveals in the last quarter of each year. However, rumors started to spread this year, pointing to a major change in the launch timeline of the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s successor. The rumors suggested that the first devices with the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 would launch in late September. For that to happen, Qualcomm would need to announce the chipset earlier than usual, and this has just been confirmed during the Computex.
Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 Launch Confirmed for Late September
Today, Qualcomm held a short conference at Computex and confirmed that its next Snapdragon Summit is taking place from September 23 to September 25. This is almost four months from now. For those unfamiliar, the Snapdragon Summit is the usual stage at which the company unveils the latest and greatest Snapdragon chips. So, the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 launch is set for late September.
With this in mind, we can expect a race between smartphone brands, especially Chinese ones, to be the first to announce a Snapdragon 8 Elite 2-powered smartphone.
Xiaomi, OnePlus, Vivo, and Realme are the usual brands that fight to claim “the first” each year, and we believe this won’t be different in 2025. We can expect teasers and even actual launches happening shortly after Qualcomm’s announcement.
Usually, Chinese brands rush to be the first to use a new Snapdragon SoC. However, they often limit the first releases to the domestic market. Considering the shifted timeline, we can expect Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 smartphones to launch globally at the end of 2025 or very early 2026. In other words, global rollouts will happen much earlier than usual.
We have to say that the new timeline puts Samsung in a rather awkward situation. After all, the company usually does its second Unpacked – the one that presents new foldable smartphones – in July/August. With the next round of foldable launching in early July, as the rumors suggest, Samsung won’t have much time to make them “look cool” with the current flagship SoCs. Three months will be before Qualcomm pops out with a new flagship, and other brands will have the chance to launch fancier foldable smartphones with the latest SoC.
