The race to launch the first smartphone powered by Qualcomm‘s next-generation chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, has taken an unexpected turn.
While rumors have long been hinting that the Xiaomi 15 series will be the first to debut with the new Snapdragon chip, now it seems the OnePlus 13 might be the first to do so.
The plot twist comes from a teaser video posted by Snapdragon on its official Weibo account. The video doesn’t reveal much about the chipset itself, except that it will have Oryon CPU cores.
The main highlight, though, is a smartphone with a circular camera island in the top-left corner. It’s easy to guess this is a OnePlus phone, as this design has been a hallmark of OnePlus since the OnePlus 11.
Is OnePlus 13 the first to launch with Snapdragon 8 Elite?
Digital Chat Station, the reputable tipster has also weighed in to add some interesting details. First, they confirmed the official name of the next-gen chip—Snapdragon 8 Elite (though the Chinese translations may suggest “Extreme Edition,” that’s just a mistranslation).
More interestingly, the tipster pointed out that the phone shown in Qualcomm’s teaser is a Snapdragon 8 Elite prototype with a design similar to the OnePlus 13. This naturally raises the question—could OnePlus be the first to launch with the Snapdragon 8 Elite?
Even the tipster refrains from outright confirmation. DCS states, “It’s not hard to doubt it, so can OnePlus get the first release?” This leaves room for interpretation.
It’s important to note that this remains speculation, and neither OnePlus nor Qualcomm has officially commented on the launch timeline for the Snapdragon 8 Elite or the device featured in the teaser.
However, the wait for confirmation shouldn’t be long, as we are likely to see the first Snapdragon 8 Elite phone, whether from OnePlus or Xiaomi, this month. We will keep you posted on any updates.
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