Qualcomm has unveiled its latest flagship mobile processors, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. Both chips are manufactured using a 2nm process. The standard version features a CPU with six Qualcomm Oryon cores, including two at 5 GHz and four at 4 GHz, alongside 16 MB of Oryon Flex Cache.
Compared to the previous generation, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 offers a 13% increase in CPU performance with 37% lower power consumption. The GPU is 44% faster with 40% higher efficiency, while the NPU provides a 35% speed boost and 33% better performance per watt. The platform supports up to 24 GB of LPDDR5x/LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage.
The Extreme variant is optimized for AI agents and local execution of models with over 30 billion parameters, utilizing 50% more memory for the NPU. It includes specialized matrix cores for AI, Adreno Neural Fusion for AI scaling, and 18 MB of Adreno High-Performance Memory. The chip also features a Qualcomm X105 modem supporting 5G Advanced, Wi-Fi 8, and Bluetooth 6.0.
The processors support 8K video recording at 60 FPS and 4K at 240 FPS, along with advanced image processing features. Connectivity options include satellite support via NR-NTN and NB-NTN standards. The first smartphones equipped with these new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series processors are expected to launch before the end of 2026.
