Snapdragon 8 Elite Could be the Powerhouse Behind Galaxy S25 Ultra

The Samsung Galaxy S25‘s Qualcomm chipset may get a new name. Originally expected to be called the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, the chip may be rebranded to Snapdragon 8 Elite. The new name appeared in a leaked official teaser for the Xiaomi 15, which could be the first phone to ship with the upcoming Qualcomm processor.

Snapdragon 8 Elite might power Samsung’s Galaxy S25 series

Qualcomm is gearing up to launch its next-gen flagship smartphone processor in October. It’ll be the firm’s first 3nm chipset. As per its current naming scheme — introduced in 2021 when the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 succeeded the Snapdragon 888 — the upcoming chip should have been called the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. All leaks and rumors referred to it by that name.

However, a leaked Xiaomi 15 teaser mentioned the Snapdragon 8 Elite. It appears Qualcomm decided to introduce a new naming scheme for its chips, at least the flagship ones, just three years after the last revamp. We can see where it’s coming from, though. The upcoming mobile processor debuts the company’s custom Oryon CPU cores previously used in PC processors.

Guess what Qualcomm’s flagship PC processor is called? Yes, it’s the Snapdragon X Elite. The company may be looking to bring its high-end chipsets with Oryon cores under the “Elite” branding umbrella. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4/ 8 Elite looks set to bring a massive performance boost as well, worthy of a new branding. We are looking at a speed gain of over 30%.

That’s according to benchmark listings for the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The phone has appeared with two variants of the unannounced Qualcomm chip, with peak speeds of 4.47GHz and 4.19GHz. The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (For Galaxy) runs at a maximum speed of 3.39GHz. The faster Snapdragon 8 Elite might be the Samsung-exclusive “For Galaxy” variant. Stay tuned for its official launch next month. The Snapdragon Summit kicks off on October 21.