Qualcomm’s next flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, is already stirring excitement ahead of its expected debut later this year. Leaked test samples suggest this next-gen processor could deliver some of the fastest clock speeds seen in a smartphone chip.
According to reliable leakers @Olrak29_, two Qualcomm Reference Devices (QRDs) powered by the chip—codenamed SM8850—have surfaced online. One version reportedly reaches a peak clock speed of 5.3GHz, edging out even Intel’s Core Ultra 9 288V laptop CPU (5.1GHz), while another hits a more conservative 4.8GHz, likely closer to what we’ll see in commercial devices. For reference, the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite and its “For Galaxy” version (seen on the S25 series) hit 4.32GHz and 4.47GHz, respectively.
The 8 Elite 2 is expected to be built on TSMC’s 3nm N3P process and powered by Qualcomm’s second-generation Nuvia cores. This architecture could push single-core CPU performance up by 30%, according to a report from NotebookCheck. Graphics may see similar improvements, with the Adreno 840 GPU rumored to include a 16MB cache and deliver another 30% boost—making it ideal for gaming, 8K video rendering, and on-device generative AI applications.
Still, some caution is warranted. The 5.3GHz variant may be a high-frequency engineering sample used for internal testing, and there’s uncertainty around how sustainable such speeds would be in real-world use. The jump from N3E to N3P isn’t massive, so heat management will be a big question if the clock speed sees such a big jump.
Tipster Digital Chat Station reports that the chip scores over 4,000 in Geekbench’s single-core test and around 11,000 in the multi-core test—quite a leap from the current chip’s usual scores of about 3,100 and 9,700.
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