Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 is the first 5GHz phone chip — and there are two of them
Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Extreme Gen 6: 2nm, up to 44% faster graphics. The phones using them and what's confirmed.
Stated by the maker, publisher, or platform holder.
Qualcomm unveiled its next flagship phone chips on 22 September at its Snapdragon Summit in Maui — and for the first time it launched two of them. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and a higher-tier Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 will power most premium Android phones through 2027.
What's confirmed
The Xiaomi 18 Pro lineup was the first to launch with the Extreme chip, the same day, and Motorola announced its Signature 27 with it. OnePlus and iQOO flagships are expected in the coming weeks.
Two tiers — what separates them
| Versus last year's 8 Elite Gen 5 | 8 Elite Gen 6 | 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU performance | +10% | +13% |
| CPU power efficiency | +37% | +37% |
| GPU performance | +35% | +44% |
| AI (NPU) performance | +14% | +35% |
| Video | 8K at 30fps | 8K at 60fps |
The biggest difference is graphics. The Extreme adds what Qualcomm calls Adreno Matrix Cores — the first cores in an Adreno GPU dedicated to AI, used to upscale and enhance games in the graphics pipeline, much like Nvidia's DLSS does on PCs. It also carries more on-chip graphics memory.
Reporting from launch also says the Extreme supports faster LPDDR6 memory while the standard chip sticks with LPDDR5X — which matters more this year than usual.
Why two chips
Splitting the flagship gives phone makers a choice: the standard chip for a strong all-rounder, the Extreme for gaming phones and top-end models. It also gives Qualcomm two shots at the top of the benchmark charts.
The less flattering reading is cost. Newer, faster memory arrives in the middle of a global memory shortage that has already pushed up the price of consoles, PCs, and phones. An Extreme-powered flagship with LPDDR6 is likely to be one of the more expensive Android phones of the year — and the two-tier split gives manufacturers room to hold prices on cheaper models by using the standard chip.
The short version
If you're buying a premium Android phone in the next year, it will almost certainly run one of these. The performance gains on paper are real but modest on the CPU side; graphics and AI are where the jump is. As always with chip launches, wait for reviews of actual phones — thermal limits in a thin handset decide how much of that 44% you ever see.