Qualcomm just can’t seem to settle on what to call its flagship processors. After rebranding its top-tier chip earlier this year as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the company might shuffle things around yet again, and somehow, it’s getting even more confusing.
According to a new leak from reliable Weibo tipster Digital Chat Station, next year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 will reportedly come in two versions: a standard model and a Pro variant.
That means the true successor to the current 8 Elite Gen 5 will technically be the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, while the non-Pro version will likely be a slightly watered-down version sharing most of the same specs.
If you trace Qualcomm’s naming history, the confusion starts to make sense (sort of). Back in 2022, the company kicked off its new convention with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which was normally followed by the 8 Gen 2 and 8 Gen 3. But in 2024, Qualcomm decided to rename its flagship line to Snapdragon 8 Elite, only to tweak it again in 2025 to Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
To make things worse, Qualcomm is still planning to launch a Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 as a sub-flagship chip later this year. And now, adding a “Pro” to the flagship lineup just makes the whole thing even murkier.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 / Pro specs
As to what the upcoming chips might bring, both will reportedly be manufactured using TSMC’s N2P process and feature Qualcomm’s third-generation custom CPU architecture with a 2+3+3 core setup.
According to the leak, the two versions will differ mainly in GPU capabilities, and only the Pro variant is expected to support LPDDR6 memory.
A separate report claims that the new manufacturing process and faster memory could drive up production costs, which might translate to even pricier flagship phones by 2027.
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