Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Coming In Two Versions: Standard And Pro, Naming Is Increasingly Confusing

JAKARTA Qualcomm doesn't seem to be able to move on from the habit of changing the name of its flagship chipset. After releasing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 earlier this year, the latest leak reveals that its successor, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, will come in two versions: Standard and Pro and, yes, this makes the naming scheme even more confusing.

This information comes from a trusted leaker from China, Digital Chat Station, via uploads on Weibo. According to him, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro will be the true successor to the current version of Gen 5, while the Standard variant will carry similar but slightly lighter specifications with weaker GPUs.

This confusion is not without history. Since 2022, Qualcomm has started a new naming through Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, followed by Gen 2 and Gen 3. However, in 2024, the company suddenly changed its name to Snapdragon 8 Elite, before adding a "Gen 5" label in 2025. Now, rumors of Gen 6 Pro and Gen 6 Standard actually add new layers to its branding compressine.

What makes it even more complicated is that Qualcomm will also reportedly continue to release a non-Elite version of Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 as a sub-flagship chip later this year. So, you can imagine how confused smartphone manufacturers will be when choosing which 8 Gen 5 is meant.

From a technical point of view, the two Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 variants are said to be made with a super efficient TSMC N2P fabrication process and carrying Qualcomm's third-generation custom CPU architecture with 2+3+3 core configurations. The main difference lies in the GPU capabilities, and only Pro versions will support LPDDR6 RAM, the latest memory standard that promises extreme performance.

Separate reports state that a more sophisticated manufacturing process as well as the use of new generation memory will increase production costs, meaning the price of this chip-based flagship phone could rise significantly in 2027.

If these rumors are true, then Qualcomm seems to want not only to strengthen performance, but also to challenge consumer resistance to face the most complex business in the world of technology: guessing the name of Snapdragon's next chipset