Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series is here: Qualcomm’s new chips target flagship AI smartphones

Qualcomm launched two new flagship smartphone chips: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 at the annual Snapdragon Summit. Both chips are said to power upcoming AI-powered smartphones from top smartphone brands, including HONOR, iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO, REDMI, RedMagic, vivo, and Xiaomi.

Both system-on-chips (SoCs) are manufactured on a 2nm process technology and are said to bring a premium experience and agentic AI power to smartphones. “By designing two innovative platforms, we're giving OEMs greater choice as we collectively shape the capabilities of the next generation of intelligent, personalized, mobile experiences,” said Chris Patrick, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Handsets, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

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Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series: What does it offer?

Architecture: Both chips use a similar foundation, with powerful processors, upgraded graphics, and improved AI-processing hardware. The 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chips feature Qualcomm’s custom 64-bit Oryon CPU, which handles computing tasks, such as running apps, multitasking, and processing data. The CPU consists of two Prime cores clocked at up to 5.0 GHz and six Performance cores reaching up to 4.0 GHz, backed by 16 MB of Qualcomm Oryon Flex Cache.

The processors also come with an Adreno GPU that handles graphics-related tasks and a reengineered Hexagon NPU to handle AI-related workloads directly on the device. They can support up to 24GB LPDDR5x/6 RAM, up to 5,300 MHz memory speed, and UFS 5.0 storage.

Performance: According to Qualcomm’s blog post, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 is said to deliver 10% improved CPU performance with a 37% improvement in power efficiency. It offers 35% better graphics and a 14% increase in NPU performance.

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On the other hand, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 offers 13% improved CPU performance, a 44% increase in GPU performance, and a 35% increase in NPU performance, offering stronger AI processing performance.

The chips include new sensing hubs capable of running AI models with up to 200 million parameters. This sensor helps run AI locally that also helps improve responsiveness, privacy, and power efficiency. Qualcomm says smartphones using these chips can run a Personal Scribe locally. This could allow the phone to capture and process information such as voice notes or conversations directly on the device.

Furthermore, the chip can build a form of usage-based memory, according to Qualcomm. This means the phone could use information about how you interact with it to suggest ways to automate recurring tasks.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series-powered phones

Motorola has already announced the new Motorola Signature 27 powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. Xiaomi also confirmed that its upcoming flagships, the Xiaomi 18 Pro series, will be powered by the new Snapdragon chips. However, we can expect annoncements from other brands in coming months as well.