Which phone will get Snapdragon 8 Elite first? See these four new Android devices
Xiaomi, Honor, Asus, and Realme are all rushing out new phones with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip
📱 Four Android phones are coming soon with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset
⚙️ It’s Qualcomm’s top-tier AI-focused chip with a laptop-class Oryon CPU
🔜 Xiaomi, Honor, Asus and Realme will deliver Snapdragon 8 Elite phones first
📆 OnePlus 13 and Samsung S25 Ultra will likely be the first in the US in 2025
Yesterday, we reported on Realme declaring that its Realme GT 7 Pro would be the first flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite phone. The Android smartphone, containing the newly announced Qualcomm chipset, is scheduled to arrive in November.
Cue Chinese rival Xiaomi walking on stage at the Snapdragon Summit, declaring that it would be the first phone with the power AI-focused chip in October. It didn’t stop there. Honor showed off the Honor Magic 7, which is set to launch on October 30, and Asus said the Asus ROG Phone 9 is coming on November 7. Asus briefly showed off the Snapdragon 8 Elite-equipped phone on stage.
So the Realme GT 7 Pro may be coming fourth, although it did specify that its new Android phone would be the first ‘flagship’ with Snapdragon 8 Elite. It was also the first to announce the news via a press release.
So, it really depends on how you cut the phrasing. Either way, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is coming sooner and in more phones than anyone had expected.
More Snapdragon 8 Elite phones coming soon
The Snapdragon 8 Elite will arrive from “ASUS, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, Oppo, RealMe, Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi, and more” in “the coming weeks,” according to Qualcomm.
Besides the companies mentioned already, that means Oppo, Samsung, Vivo, iQOO, and OnePlus all have smartphones ready to launch between now and likely the end of January. That’s what I would consider the Snapdragon 8 Elite launch window and fitting of Qualcomm’s official statement of “the coming weeks.”
The first Snapdragon 8 Elite phone in the US
The OnePlus 13 leaks have already pretty much confirmed that the device will be in our hands soon, and it may have the distinction of being the first Snapdragon 8 Elite phone to come to the United States. OnePlus has consistently packed the top-tier Qualcomm chipset to be a “flagship killer” at a lower price than its rivals. Stay tuned for that Snapdragon 8 Elite news.
What about the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra? The South Korean tech company is likely to power its Samsung Galaxy S25 phone series with Snapdragon 8 Elite in late January, twelve months after our Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra review.
We were reporting live from the Samsung Developer Conference when the company tipped its hand at the launch window, promising that its imminent One UI 7 software update would launch in 2025 with the “next Samsung Galaxy S phone.” Late January makes sense for that timeline for the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra.
More Snapdragon 8 Elite phones in 2025
Beyond the Snapdragon 8 Elite launch window, consistent Qualcomm chip customers mean we’ll likely see the Motorola Razr+ 2025, Galaxy Z Fold 7, and Galaxy Z Flip 7 in the US, with the rumored Oppo Find X8 Ultra, Vivo iQOO 13 and ZTE Nubia Red Magic 10 Pro set to launch globally in 2025.
Basically, we’re going to see this chipset in every flagship phone over the next year except for the Gogole Pixel 10 series (the sequel to the Google Pixel 9 Pro XL and Google Pixel 9 Pro Fold we reviewed) and the iPhone 17 Ultra (the thinner sequel to the iPhone 16 Pro we reviewed)