Qualcomm Has Already Started Testing The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2, With The Chipset’s Designation Number Found In Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2 Software

The Snapdragon 8 Elite was only announced last month, but there is evidence that Qualcomm is wasting no time to prepare for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 launch next year. Proof of the company’s efforts was found in Xiaomi’s HyperOS software, where the SoC’s unique designation number was spotted. A few bits and pieces of information surrounding the 2025 flagship silicon have also been detailed in previous findings, so we will discuss those at length and more below.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 to feature ‘SM8850’ designation, according to the latest leak, but no word on its specifications

The leak was shared by Erencan Yılmaz on X, revealing that Xiaomi’s HyperOS 2 was testing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. While it is not out of the ordinary for companies like Qualcomm to begin the development of their flagship silicon earlier, keep in mind that the first wave of the Snapdragon 8 Elite smartphones has yet to begin arriving to the market. Then again, it is entirely possible that the ‘SM8850’ designation was mentioned because HyperOS 2 has ‘out of the box’ support for it, and any future handset launching with the handset would be compatible with both platforms.

Sadly, at this stage, it is way too early to speculate on Qualcomm’s plans for the future. We say this because we cannot confirm which manufacturing process the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 will use, but we have reported about a rumor claiming that the San Diego wants Samsung to enter its supply chain because that will help to reduce the chipset’s production costs. At the time, we called next year’s release the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 because Qualcomm had not confirmed what its current SoC would be called.

Qualcomm is testing the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 SoC (SM8850), this has been revealed in HyperOS 2 software. pic.twitter.com/3nDXoRsxt5

— Erencan Yılmaz (@erenylmaz075) November 28, 2024

Another rumor was doing the rounds, saying that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 will leverage TSMC’s new 3nm N3P process, along with Samsung’s SF2 node, which is also known as 2nm GAA, as long as the Korean giant can improve its yields to an acceptable threshold. We have also stated that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 may ship with the same CPU cluster as the Snapdragon 8 Elite but with higher clock speeds, along with SME support to boost single-core and multi-core performance.

In short, there are a boatload of rumors surrounding the new silicon, but none of them provide any solid evidence, which is why we will wait for more updates to come through before can provide any impartial overview, so stay tuned.

News Source: Erencan Yılmaz