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This new Android chip could leave the iPhone 17 in its dust

Snapdragon 8 Elite 2
Qualcomm

The new Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 could arrive in time to take on the iPhone 17 in a powerful way.

According to a Digital Chat Station rumour we can expect Qualcomm to reveal its next-gen mobile chip sooner than anticipated.

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This suggests that Qualcomm is preparing to launch the new chip at the end of September.

That could mean this processor is appearing in Android smartphones as soon as October 2025. That’s what the leakster claims we can expect.

What’s is the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2?

Qualcomm’s alleged Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 chip is looking set to be the next-generation chip that could leave even the latest iPhone 17 wanting.

It’s early days but the rumour mill is churning up and some specs that are being mentioned include a 5GHz speed ability in the main core of the processor.

This processor is claimed to run off Qualcomm’s “enhanced Pegasus cores”.

When it comes to gaming, this may excel thanks to Adreno 840 GPU pairing which is backed by the impressive LPDDR6 RAM modules.

When is the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 coming?

While the rumour suggests we can expect a September reveal, the usual timeline for Qualcomm could suggest it is coming a few weeks later.

In 2024 the Qualcomm summit in Hawaii was held between October 21 and 23. Moving that up by a month would make sense to ensure Android phones can launch with this in time to compete with the latest iPhone that’s due to be revealed in September.

Qualcomm did hold the summit in November in years past, but moved that up to October for the last two. So moving it another month forward, to better compete with Apple, would make sense for this year.

Expect to see this chip arrive in Android flagship phones, so perhaps the Samsung Galaxy S26.

Luke Edwards
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Luke has over two decades of experience covering tech, science and health. Among many others, Luke writes about health tech…
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