There aren't a lot of phones powered by Qualcomm's newest flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, right now, but we're already hearing rumors about what might come next year. Leaker Digital Chat Station (DCS) posted some details about the next Qualcomm flagship, and a little of what we might expect from the chips (yes, chips) that should power the best Android phones of 2027.
DCS refers to the chips by their model numbers, SM8975 and SM8950. Both those numbers are expected to correlate with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro. If this leak is accurate, it means this release could mark the first time Qualcomm has adopted TSMC's 2nm process on mobile chips.
Big performance gains
We'd expect a noticeable boost in performance and energy efficiency from one year to the next, but switching from a 3nm process to 2nm could offer even larger gains. That's all down to the extra transistor density, and means next year's Android flagships should enjoy improvements that wouldn't have otherwise been available.
DCS also notes that the Gen 6 chips will keep the same 2+3+3 CPU configuration of past Snapdragon generations, but the key difference between the two may lie in the graphics department. Apparently, the Pro chip will feature an Adreno 850 GPU with 18MB GMEM, while the standard Gen 6 will feature an Adreno 845 and 12MB GMEM.
GMEM is graphics memory, and Android Authority posits that DCS is likely referring to Adreno's high-performance memory cache. So by having more graphics memory, the Gen 6 Pro will likely be able to handle more intensive graphics processing. It's also said that the Pro model will support LPDDR6 memory, a first for Android phones.
For reference, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has an Adreno 840 GPU with 18MB GMEM. That means there's a slight memory downgrade for the standard Gen 6, but it might be slightly offset by the fact that the chip has a newer GPU and the benefits of the 2nm process.
Price is going to be an issue
DCS claims that the 6 Pro chip is going to be "extremely expensive." That means it's not likely to appear in anything but the most ultra-premium Android flagships. This is not ideal news, considering the cost of RAM and other components is already on the rise. If the price difference really is that extreme, we may see an even bigger increase in flagship phone costs going forward.
Though my question is, what will this mean for the Samsung Galaxy S27? Galaxy flagships have been using a custom version of Qualcomm's main chip for the past few years, offering improved computing and graphical performance compared to the standard chip. Will that trend continue? Or will the Galaxy S27 series adopt the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro instead?
Only time will tell, but for now, we're going to have to contend with the fact that the flagship phone space might be getting more fragmented performance as of next year. Though that might actually be a good thing, if it means phone makers have more choice on what chips they can use and how much they'll have to inevitably charge their customers.
