C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
We all long for faster processors, but if the leaked Snapdragon 8s Elite specs are accurate, Qualcomm’s upcoming mobile chip might hit the ideal sweet spot of reasonable performance and price, arguably a tougher feat than piling the best of everything into a chip. When it’s finally unveiled, likely around March 2025, it will be destined for sub-flagship phones (think around $500 or so), and I’ll certainly be keeping my eye on the handsets that the 8s Elite ships in, possibly more so than this year’s upcoming ultra-premium models.
I’m not a performance killjoy; I’ve been very impressed by the early Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphones I’ve had the luxury of using so far — they’re super responsive, and Qualcomm’s custom CPU design sips on battery life, ensuring phones easily last all day. The 8 Elite is great, but I’ve still not found a real-world use case that puts the chip to the sword. Even high-end gaming barely causes the chip to break a sweat, its networking capabilities far exceed my carrier’s, and I don’t really have any use for all that on-device AI shenanigans.
Headroom for the future is good, of course, but with flagship smartphone prices hitting all-time highs, it’s hard to recommend paying for more performance than we can use. Many of you dear readers feel the same way, and this theme crops up more and more often these days.
Would you buy a Snapdragon 8s Elite phone?
164 votes
Yes
44%
No
23%
I’ll need to see the performance first
33%
When Qualcomm’s latest chip is pushed to run at full tilt, smartphones struggle with the heat, which is a bit concerning from a future-proof and battery longevity perspective. Qualcomm’s 8 Elite pushes the limits of what can be done in the compact smartphone form factor. It’s a marvel from a technological perspective, but it’s almost like buying a V8 only to crawl through downtown traffic — it’s just not how most of us should be spending our money.
The 8 Elite is great, but the 8s should provide most of what we want at a lower price.
While the Snapdragon 8s Elite is still in testing, early reports suggest it might perform just behind last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship — a chip that still flies through the most demanding mobile games, runs AI on-device, and sports all the connectivity options you could ever want. Of course, we’ll have to wait to see which features end up on the chopping block; it’ll likely have some network downgrades to start. It won’t feature Qualcomm’s custom CPU cores either, reverting to a more familiar Arm Cortex arrangement. That’s likely to be the most significant downgrade, a shame given the power and efficiency of the flagship 8 Elite. I had hoped for a leaner hexa-core Phoenix CPU arrangement, but perhaps Qualcomm is saving something like that for next year’s 8s Elite 2.
Still, I’d argue that performance and features have been bountiful since 2023’s 8 Gen 2 era, which is roughly where Google’s Tensor G4 sits on the benchmark charts today as it happens. If the Snapdragon 8s Elite can best that, which it looks like it will, with a component cost suitable for phones around or even below the $600 mark, I think Qualcomm will be on to a major winner for mass consumers. Especially if it means more budget headroom for camera upgrades, robust build materials, and longer-term support, which are much bigger contributors to closing the gap on more expensive, top-tier flagships.
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority
The recent OnePlus 13R ($599.99 at OnePlus) is a prime example of a superb yet much more affordable smartphone that certainly isn’t held back by last-gen performance. Likewise, the Galaxy S24 FE ($552.54 at Amazon) and its Exynos 2400e chipset ensure the essentials hold up well, allowing Samsung to bring its broader Galaxy experience to more cost-conscious consumers. These are the phones I’m recommending to friends and family who want something robust and capable that’ll last four or five years without a $999 or higher price tag, and the Snapdragon 8s Elite should help more phones fit into this same category.
Give me better cameras and longer support over faster benchmarks.
My hope is that we’ll see the Snapdragon 8s Elite appear in a wide range of handsets, not just those destined for markets outside of the US. Unfortunately, Google and Samsung already have their own chips, but we highly rated the foldable Motorola Razr Plus (2024) ($799.99 at Amazon) based on the 8s Gen 3.
We still have months to go until Qualcomm unveils its next s-tier chip and even longer until handsets land on store shelves, so perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself. There are still plenty of exciting 2025 flagships to come, but I’m definitely holding back on future purchases until I can see what the second half of the year has in store for the cash-conscious.
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