When it comes to flagship Android phones and chips, Qualcomm’s run of Snapdragon 8 processors have been the go to for the best Android phones like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Part of the problem is Qualcomm has raised the prices for its flagship system-on-chip every year for the last couple of generations. And that may have contributed to price increases on phones powered by that silicon.
However, a new report from regular leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo indicates that Qualcomm might not raise prices on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. According to a machine translation of that DCS post, the “new machine can theoretically maintain the original price.”
Qualcomm’s Gen 2 chip is rumored to make a massive leap in both CPU and GPU performance, so little or no movement on price is a big deal.
How will this affect future Android phones
With tariffs affecting everything from cheap clothing to phone chips and beyond, there have been reports that companies that use Qualcomm’s chip like Xiaomi, Honor and Oppo have been looking for more Chinese-made silicon to power their phones. It’s not clear at this time how close those companies are to weaning off of Qualcomm.
On a bigger level every year, reports circulate that Samsung might turn to its own Exynos chips instead of the latest Snapdragon to be the primary SoCs for its premium Galaxy devices. Next year’s Samsung Galaxy S26 and the rumored Exynos 2600 is no different.
For the most part, that hasn’t happened as Samsung’s phones have largely featured the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 chipset, save of the Exynos 2500-powered Galaxy Z Flip 7.
If Qualcomm’s chip retains a similar price, it might mean that next year’s S26 lineup receives beefier upgrades in other components since Samsung won’t be spending as much money on its processor.
Typically, Qualcomm reveals its flagship SoCs in the fall. So we’ll know more about how advanced Gen 2 will be later this fall, and potentially its cost.
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