Google Pixel handsets aside, the best Android phones use the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. It’s a chipset that goes toe-to-toe with Apple’s A18 Pro used in the iPhone 16 Pro, and two new leaks have given us an idea of how its successor will keep things competitive with the iPhone 17.
First up, on Weibo, the reliable leaker Digital Chat Station has what he claims to be raw specifications of SM8850 — the model number for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2.
While the layout is the same, with two prime cores and six performance cores, there are still some noteworthy improvements. For starters, the leaker says that it will be built to TSMC’s N3P process, for a smaller, more efficient design. It will also pack the Adreno 840 GPU — a step up from the 830 used on its predecessor.
Perhaps more importantly, the leaker says that it supports SME1 and SVE2 extensions. These relate to machine learning, computer vision and other related fields, and, as Android Authority explains, the support for SVE2 suggests that the chipset is built on ArmV9 architecture. That’s a big step up from the Elite 8, which was built on ArmV8.
Clock speeds aren’t revealed here, but on X, the leaker Jukanlosreve not only reports that the GPU will be 1.35GHz (up from 1.1GHz on the 830), but gives us an insight into what kind of performance boost the new chipset will bring to the table. We’re apparently looking at a 25% boost to single-core performance and 20% for multi-core.
SM8850 (Snapdragon 8 Elite 2)ST: 25% increase compared to predecessor – 4000MT: 20% increase compared to predecessor – 13,000Adreno 840 at 1.35GHzSource:UndeadMarch 28, 2025
A worthy iPhone 17 competitor?
If past Qualcomm releases are anything to go by, we’d expect the company to reveal the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 between October and November. It will then gradually filter through to Android flagships over the next few months, with the first major release expected to be the Samsung Galaxy S26 early next year.
That means it will arrive after the A19 chipset debuts in the iPhone 17 range in September. It is also tipped to be using TSMC’s N3P fabrication process, and while we haven’t heard anything definitive, Apple tends to boost performance by around 20% each generation.
After a period of having the upper hand over Qualcomm, it’s become extremely close with the Snapdragon 8 series. The Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset achieved Geekbench scores of 3,031 and 9,829 to the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s 3,386 and 8,306. While we wrote that the S25 Ultra “blew away” the iPhone on the 3DMark Solar Bay Unlimited test, there’s every chance Apple could flip that around this time.
Ultimately, a lot is still unknown, and with six months to go until the iPhone 17 launches, there’s plenty of time for more to emerge about the two competing chipsets before they go head to head in the winter.