Qualcomm’s next Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro could make Android flagships faster, pricier and a lot harder for phone makers to justify.
The shift to TSMC’s 2nm process should make Qualcomm more competitive against the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple. The drawback is that Qualcomm’s chipsets are apparently heading for wallet-melting territory.
Qualcomm is expected to introduce the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 later this year. It was already estimated to cost up to $280 per unit. Now the dark satanic rumour mill has manufactured a hell-on-earth yarn claiming the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro will crank the pain up a notch.
The higher-end system on chip is rumoured to cost more than $300, which makes broad adoption by Android phone makers rather tricky.
That means the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro may end up inside only “Ultra” flagships, where customers are already used to being mugged by the spec sheet.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 was already a tough sell for manufacturers. The ongoing DRAM crisis makes life even more awkward for Qualcomm’s partners. The pairing of LPDDR6 RAM and UFS 5.0 storage is reportedly more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro.
That means those three parts alone could account for more than $600 in the bill of materials. That sort of component bill will make margins wince.
The situation may explain why the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 is expected to ship in higher volumes. It will probably cost less than the top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro.
TSMC’s newer 2nm process is not the only reason Qualcomm’s premium chip is tipped to cost more than $300.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro is rumoured to have a much faster GPU, record-breaking L2 cache and a 50 per cent wider bus.
Qualcomm may have seen this mess coming. The San Diego outfit is said to be preparing four chipset options for customers, including a Snapdragon 8 Gen 6 to replace the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5.
That suggests Qualcomm may lean more heavily on non-flagship chips this year to bring in the bulk of annual revenue. It is not a daft pivot while memory prices are busy punching everyone in the margins.
