It’s official: The ‘Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’ will power the next wave of Android flagships

Qualcomm has officially announced its next flagship mobile chipset, the “Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.” Ahead of the 2025 Snapdragon Summit, where the chip maker will reveal the processor that’ll power the next set of premium Android flagship phones, Qualcomm has explained why the company is following this new naming convention after it launched the Snapdragon 8 Elite branding last year.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite, which powered devices like the Galaxy S25 series, could have been followed by something like the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. Instead, the company is jumping straight to a “Gen 5” processor. At first glance, it may seem like Qualcomm skipped multiple generations, but the company has explained the logic behind its naming scheme on Weibo.

Here’s the lineage:

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
• Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
• Snapdragon 8 Elite (effectively “Gen 4”)
• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

Qualcomm says the new naming convention better reflects product milestones and will carry over to future Snapdragon platforms.

Meanwhile, Xiaomi is wasting no time adopting the new chip. The company confirmed that the Xiaomi 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max will launch with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Xiaomi also skipped the “16” moniker entirely, jumping straight to the 17 series to directly compete with Apple’s iPhone 17 range. The processor will also power the Galaxy S26 series, with a possible “Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy” branding.

More details on performance and features are expected at the Snapdragon Summit later this year. However, rumors suggest that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will be based on TSMC’s 3nm process and feature custom Oryon cores.