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ByChris Hall
Qualcomm has sent out an invite for its next launch event taking place in China on 2 April. The company says (translated) that “powerful Snapdragon flagship new products are coming” and it’s thought that it will be the next chapter in the Snapdragon 8 Series story.
In October 2025 Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite, making a switch in its mobile hardware and putting the Oryon chip at its core (pardon the pun). That hardware has poured into flagship devices like the OnePlus 13 and the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, but now Qualcomm is preparing for what comes next.
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The next step is expected to give us something more affordable. This hardware is likely to land with the Snapdragon 8 name, but with a modifier – last year it was called the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. But because of the change in naming from Qualcomm for this generation, we don’t know if we’re getting the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 or the Snapdragon 8s Elite.
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It’s thought that Qualcomm is going to reserve the Elite name for its top flagship chip, so it’s likely that it will land as the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4.
Why does the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 matter?
Flagship phones are expensive and one route to reducing the cost is to use hardware that’s slightly lower down the ladder. That will often result in some core elements being just as powerful, but some sacrifices made elsewhere. Remember too that Qualcomm already has two tiers for the Snapdragon 8 Elite, with an 8-core version and a 7-core version.
Usually this results in hardware that’s not quite as powerful in intensive tasks, perhaps unable to sustain graphical performance for the same length of time. Equally, it may run cooler, so fit better into slimmer phones, as well as being cheaper.
At the same time, the day-to-day performance is often indistinguishable when you’re browsing online or snapping photos on your phone, with even casual gaming being perfectly playable.
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 found its way into phones like the Motorola Razr+ (2024), but is more common in devices where price is a key factor. Brands like Honor, Redmi, Realme and Xiaomi often use such hardware. Sure, many of those phones don’t make it to the US, but Motorola is expected to launch new devices soon which could use this hardware.
The exact details remain to be seen, but this announcement could trigger the next wave of affordable flagship phones.
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Chris has been writing about consumer tech for over 15 years. Formerly the Editor-in-Chief of Pocket-lint, he's covered just…
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