TL; DR
- Qualcomm’s next flagship chipset will reportedly be called Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
- The name blends the Elite and Gen systems, which makes things unnecessarily complicated.
- It is expected to be announced at the Snapdragon Summit on September 23, 2025.
Qualcomm is once again shaking up its Snapdragon naming scheme, and this time it might be pushing things a little too far. The company’s upcoming flagship chipset, set to debut in September 2025, will reportedly be called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Yes, that’s the actual name, and no, you didn’t miss a Gen 4 somewhere along the way.
Qualcomm’s Flagship Chipset Naming History
Looking back, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 series once had a fairly straightforward naming history. The early flagships followed simple numbers: Snapdragon 845 in 2017, Snapdragon 855 in 2018, Snapdragon 865 in 2019, and Snapdragon 888 in 2020. Things changed in 2021 with the shift to a generational format, leading to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Gen 2, and Gen 3.
In 2024, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon 8 Elite, a rebranded flagship meant to highlight its Oryon CPU cores and advanced AI features. While it stood as the true successor to the 8 Gen 3, the name broke from the “Gen” structure entirely. Now many of us assumed the next version would simply be the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2, but Qualcomm seems to have other plans.
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Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5?
According to the latest leaks, 2025 will bring a three-tier setup: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 at the very top (as per DCS), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 as a high-end but not ultimate option, and the Snapdragon 8s Gen 5 for upper-midrange devices.
On paper, this could make sense for marketing, but in practice, it makes things unnecessarily complicated. After all, “8 Elite Gen 5” sounds like the 5th generation of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, when it’s actually the 2nd generation.
The criticism around this decision has already started piling up. Many argue that calling it “Snapdragon 8 Elite 2” would’ve been the more logical choice. Instead, Qualcomm has fused the Elite and Gen systems, creating a name that doesn’t quite flow.
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What to expect from the “Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5” or 8 Elite 2?
Naming aside, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (or 8 Elite 2) itself looks promising. It’s being built on TSMC’s advanced 3nm N3P process with the goal of bringing notable efficiency gains. Leaks suggest that it will use custom Oryon CPU cores pushing clock speeds of up to 4.6 GHz (and 4.74 GHz on the For Galaxy version), which is a major upgrade over the 8 Elite.
We’re also expecting an upgraded Adreno 840 GPU, and major improvements in AI performance, including multimodal processing capabilities. Leaked benchmarks of the chip on the S26 Edge suggest that it scores around 3,400 in Geekbench single-core and 11,000 in multi-core performance.
Qualcomm will officially unveil the new chipset on September 23, 2025, at the Snapdragon Summit, with the first smartphones powered by the chipset expected in October. What are your thoughts on the naming? Let us know in the comments section below.
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