Qualcomm has officially confirmed the dates for its 2026 Snapdragon Summit. The annual event, where the company usually unveils its next flagship mobile chip, will take place from September 22nd to 24th in Hawaii.
Last year, Qualcomm took the wraps off the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 during its annual Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii, and that chip went on to power devices from a long list of brands. The successor in 2026 is expected to be called Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, and it’s not coming alone.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6: What to expect
This year, leaks suggest Qualcomm is splitting its flagship lineup into two distinct chips for the first time, internally codenamed SM8950 and SM8975. Expected to be called Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, both are reportedly built on TSMC’s advanced 2nm process.
According to tipster Digital Chat Station, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 will feature a new 2+3+3 Oryon CPU layout, along with a shared 16MB L2 cache, paired with an Adreno 845 GPU featuring a six-slice design, 12MB GMEM and 6MB system-level cache, plus support for LPDDR5X memory and UFS 5.0 storage.
The Gen 6 Pro, meanwhile, will use an Adreno 850 GPU with 18MB of dedicated GMEM, a 50% increase in GPU bus width and memory capacity compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, along with support for LPDDR6 memory in addition to LPDDR5X.
Clock speeds are also expected to climb. According to reports, Gen 6 Pro could reach a peak clock speed of 5GHz, which would make it the first smartphone chip to hit that mark. To handle the extra heat that comes with higher speeds, the Pro variant is also rumored to introduce new cooling tech.
A leaked block diagram revealed Qualcomm may adopt Heat Pass Block (HPB) technology, the same cooling method used in Samsung’s Exynos 2600, where a dedicated heat-spreading layer sits directly on top of the chipset package to move heat away from the silicon faster.
Now that official dates are out, expect leaks and benchmark numbers to ramp up over the coming weeks.
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