According to the reliable leaker Digital Chat Station, Qualcomm is working on a more affordable variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. This would let phone makers put near-top-tier performance into devices that don’t cost quite as much as full-blown flagships.
The rumored chip, expected to launch later this year, carries the model number SM8850-1-AB. Early Geekbench 6 scores suggest it performs very close to the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (SM8850-AC). It’s probably the same core design with some tweaks to binning, clock speeds, or other optimizations to bring the price down. It’s expected to show up in phones costing under 4,000 yuan (around $590).
If this turns out to be real, it would be the fourth known version of the Elite Gen 5 platform:
- The regular SM8850-AC is the main one used in most premium Android phones.
- Samsung has its own SM8850-1-AD “for Galaxy” version in the S26 series and the new Fold8.
- There’s also a SM8850-5-AC with only seven CPU cores (instead of eight), which has already appeared in devices like the Oppo Find N6.
Adding this new SM8850-1-AB would give manufacturers even more flexibility to create strong “value flagship” phones..
This kind of move is classic Qualcomm. They’ve done it with previous Snapdragon 8 series too, releasing different versions so brands can hit different price points while still delivering excellent performance and AI features.
For buyers, it’s good news. More phones in the upper mid-range and premium-but-not-crazy-expensive category could get top-notch specs. This should be especially welcome in price-sensitive markets like India and other emerging regions.
Of course, we’ll need official word from Qualcomm and real-world tests to know exactly how it differs in real-world use. But if the leaks hold up, we could see some compelling flagships and premium mid-range devices, even as manufacturers continue to deal with the ongoing memory chip shortage.
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(Source: Digital Chat Station on Weibo)
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