Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6: Qualcomm moves to 2 nanometres and 5 GHz on smartphones

The facts

On 22 September 2026, the first day of its Snapdragon Summit held in Maui (Hawaii), Qualcomm unveiled two new chips for high-end Android smartphones. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 is the more powerful; the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 carries over a good share of its features for a wider range of models. Both are made on a 2-nanometre process by Taiwan’s TSMC.

Their main processor, called Oryon, has two cores that reach 5 GHz, which Qualcomm presents as a first for a mobile processor. The previous generation topped out at 4.6 GHz, according to Clubic. Compared with it, Qualcomm claims 13% more CPU performance for the Extreme version, 44% more on graphics and a neural processing unit (NPU) that is 35% faster. The standard version improves by 10% in computing, 35% in graphics and 14% for the NPU. These are the manufacturer’s figures.

The Extreme version can run AI models with more than 30 billion parameters on the phone, without going through the cloud. It adds graphics cores dedicated to AI, used in particular to improve image quality in games, and records 8K video at 60 frames per second. Both chips support Wi-Fi 8 and a 5G modem rated at up to 14.8 Gbit/s download, according to Clubic and Tom’s Hardware. The Extreme version is also Qualcomm’s first chip to support the new LPDDR6 memory, according to Les Mobiles.

Honor, iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Redmi, RedMagic, vivo and Xiaomi will fit them in their next high-end models; Motorola has already announced the Signature 27, equipped with the Extreme version.

In France: no on-sale date has been announced for the first smartphones fitted with them; the Xiaomi 18 range, among the first devices to benefit, was launched in China first, according to Les Mobiles.

On stage, Qualcomm chief Cristiano Amon described a shift from a “very phone-centric” model to one centred on AI agents, which carry out tasks on the user’s behalf rather than making them navigate from one app to another, reports Computer Weekly.

The context

Qualcomm renews its flagship chip every year, but offering two distinct flagship models is new. The company says it wants to give manufacturers more choice. The timing is no accident: rising memory prices are making phones more expensive, and the firm Counterpoint Research forecasts a fall of more than 14% in global smartphone shipments in 2026, reports The National. According to the firm, it is mainly budget models that are disappearing, while the high end, where these chips sit, is holding up better.

The move to 2 nanometres is also a fundamental change. According to ServeTheHome, this TSMC process is the foundry’s first to use so-called “gate-all-around” transistors, which completely surround the channel that conducts the current in order to control it better.

Why it matters

These chips will power the next high-end smartphones from nine Android brands. They reflect Qualcomm’s bet: turning the phone into the device that itself runs large AI assistants, without relying on remote servers. The real gap with the previous generation remains to be measured: we will wait for the first independent tests on retail phones before confirming the claimed gains.

Archive note

• Unveiled on 22 September 2026 at the Snapdragon Summit in Maui (Hawaii).
• 2 nm process at TSMC; two cores at 5 GHz, a first on mobile according to Qualcomm.
• The Extreme version runs AI models with more than 30 billion parameters on the device.