Qualcomm continues to complicate its Snapdragon chipset naming scheme. According to a leak from reputable tipster Digital Chat Station on Weibo, the company is preparing a new flagship variant called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, adding to an already crowded lineup of upcoming flagship chips.
The new processor adopts a 2+3+3 Oryon core configuration
The chip, codenamed SM8975, is built on a 2nm process and features a CPU with three Oryon clusters: two high-performance cores, three mid-range cores, and three efficiency cores. According to the leaker, this architecture delivers record-breaking peak performance thanks to more aggressive clock speeds. The GPU is a new Adreno A850, with 16GB of GMEM cache and support for LPDDR6 and LPDDR5X RAM. A significant leap over the previous generation Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which already introduced notable improvements.
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Not just Pro: three more chips in the pipeline
The naming confusion doesn't end there. The report also mentions a standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, which differs from the Pro version with a slightly lower GPU, no LPDDR6 support, and 12GB of GMEM, while keeping the same 2+3+3 core layout. Additionally, there will be a new SM8850Q variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and an SM8845 Pro chip that might be called Snapdragon 8 Gen 6 or Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Pro. Qualcomm seems determined to saturate every market segment with increasingly long model numbers.
To understand the impact on the smartphone market, consider how rising component costs are affecting flagship prices, as seen with the Xiaomi 18 Pro, which is expected to exceed $882.
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Launch timeline and expected devices
If Qualcomm follows its usual roadmap, the first smartphones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro should hit the market between October and December 2026. Major manufacturers like Samsung, Xiaomi, and OnePlus are expected to be among the first to adopt the new chip for their flagships.
Qualcomm's strategy of multiplying variants might confuse consumers, but it also offers finer performance segmentation. For a deeper dive into the company's history and processors, the Wikipedia page on Snapdragon is an excellent resource.
