Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Might Be The Name of Qualcomm's Next Flagship SoC

Qualcomm is bringing the launch of its next-gen flagship chipset earlier this year. The next chipset will be unveiled on September 23, which is almost two months earlier than the usual November window. The brand's flagship lineup went through major rebrandings in the past years. Firstly, from the Snapdragon 800 series, they've become the Snapdragon 8 Gen series. Last year, Qualcomm rebadged them again with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. We've been tentatively calling the next chipset Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, but it seems that it will actually come as Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

We've been trying to guess the name of Qualcomm's next flagship SoC, and the most obvious guess was Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 or even Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. After all, instead of calling it Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 last year, Qualcomm started a new Snapdragon 8 Elite naming scheme. This made things confusing at first, but we got used to this. Now, a new report from China suggests a new name that will also sound confusing at first glance.

The "Gen 5" may sound weird since we never got a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. However, apart from the name, the Snapdragon 8 Elite was, in fact, a successor to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. To recall, before the actual launch, we called it Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 multiple times through 2024.  

There is a reason, however, that helps to clarify things further. There are rumors that Qualcomm will launch an almost-flagship chipset this year, which may come as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5. In the end, the higher version will be Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which puts the two as part of the same family.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will be the chipset inside the next batch of flagships, like the OnePlus 15. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 will be positioned below, but should stand as a solid offering for intermediary flagships. This sounds like the perfect chipset from the so-called flagship killers from brands like OnePlus, POCO, and Realme.