Qualcomm’s new top chip will increase the price of flagship smartphones

Qualcomm is planning to increase the price of its next flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite (second generation). The new chip is expected to cost more than $200, a 20% increase over its predecessor. The main reason for this price increase is the transition to TSMC’s more modern N3P process, which promises at least a 20% performance improvement.

This price increase could affect the cost of flagship smartphones from manufacturers such as Samsung, Xiaomi and others in 2026. While Qualcomm continues to be the leader in the smartphone chipset market, higher chip prices will put pressure on device manufacturers’ profits. This, in turn, could lead to an increase in the cost of end products for consumers.

In addition, MediaTek and Samsung are actively developing their own solutions, which could intensify competition in the mobile chip market.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite, the company’s new flagship processor, has shown a significant jump in gaming performance, allowing it to run Cyberpunk 2077 on an emulator at 60 FPS at low graphics settings and 720p resolution. This is a noticeable improvement considering that its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, could only provide 30 FPS for the same game.

The chip is equipped with an updated Adreno 830 GPU, which shows performance comparable to AMD’s integrated Radeon 780M graphics. This indicates a significant progress in the field of mobile GPUs approaching desktop levels.

In other tests, the Snapdragon 8 Elite also demonstrated the ability to run Red Dead Redemption on an emulator at 160 FPS, highlighting the versatility and power of the new chip.