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Qualcomm has launched its latest flagship chips for next year's Android phones, and it could not have picked a more interesting time to do it. Apple has just raised the bar with its new A20 Pro chip, which is already being compared with desktop-class processors in early benchmarks. Now Qualcomm wants to show what its own smartphone silicon can do at the absolute limit. And this time, it has two aces up its sleeve: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6.
2nm chips with 5GHz clock speed
Qualcomm has made the first mobile chip to actually hit the 5GHz clock speed mark, making the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 the first mobile processor to reach this milestone. Both new Snapdragon chips use Qualcomm's latest Oryon CPU architecture, with two prime cores reaching up to 5GHz and six performance cores reaching up to 4GHz.
Both chips are also built on a 2nm process, marking a major move from the previous generation. Qualcomm claims the Extreme model delivers up to 13% higher CPU performance, while its GPU performance is up to 44% higher than the previous generation. It also claims up to 40% better GPU power efficiency.
Interestingly, Qualcomm has not kept the 5GHz CPU speed exclusive to the Extreme model. Both Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Extreme Gen 6 can reach 5GHz. The Extreme model instead separates itself with more powerful graphics, AI and video capabilities.
Frame generation and super resolution are coming to smartphone gaming
Frame generation and upscaling are now common features in PC gaming, but Qualcomm is bringing similar technologies to smartphone gaming with its new flagship chip.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 introduces Adreno Neural Fusion, which uses dedicated Adreno Matrix cores to run AI workloads directly inside the graphics pipeline. This can be used for super resolution, frame generation, image reconstruction, ray tracing and improved lighting and geometry. Qualcomm says this can reduce latency and power consumption by keeping these workloads closer to the GPU.
The Extreme chip also gets 18MB of dedicated Adreno High Bandwidth Memory, which is not present on the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6.
The Extreme chip is also built for serious video
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 goes beyond gaming. It supports video recording at up to 8K 60fps and 4K 240fps, along with Qualcomm's Advanced Professional Video codec. The standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 does not get the same level of video capability.
Qualcomm is also putting a major focus on on-device AI. Both chips are designed around what the company calls agentic AI, with the new Hexagon NPU aimed at handling more complex AI workloads directly on the phone.
The Extreme model gets additional AI memory and processing capabilities, putting it above the regular Gen 6 for demanding AI workloads.
First phones are already on the way
Qualcomm says several major smartphone brands will use its new chips, including HONOR, iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO, REDMI, RedMagic, vivo and Xiaomi.
Motorola has already announced the Signature 27 with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, while Xiaomi has announced the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max with the Extreme chip and the Xiaomi 18 Pro with the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6.
More flagship phones are expected to follow in the coming months, making the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series one of the key platforms to watch as Android manufacturers begin their next-generation flagship launches.
