Leak reveals specs for new Qualcomm Snapdragon SM8845 chipset destined for affordable flagships

Qualcomm changed gears again last year by rebranding its mobile chipset just three generations after introducing the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. While many initially suspected that the company would release the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, it pivoted to the Snapdragon 8 Elite instead. Potentially owing to architectural similarities with its Snapdragon X Elite laptop chipsets, Qualcomm decided to distinguish the Snapdragon 8 Elite from the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, which missed out on Oryon CPU cores.

Fast forward to 2025, and Qualcomm has now presented the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 with a mixture of ARM Cortex-X4 and Cortex-A720 CPU cores. Although it is unclear what devices will use the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, the more powerful Snapdragon 8 Elite underpins various flagships including the Nubia Z70 Ultra to the Galaxy S25 Ultra (curr. $1,099.99 on Amazon). According to Digital Chat Station, another affordable flagship chipset option is set to join both the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 at some point this year.

Reportedly, Qualcomm continues to develop a chipset with the part number SM8845, compared to SM8550 for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, SM8735 for the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and SM8850 for the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2. Writing on Weibo, Digital Chat Station alleges the SM8845 will sit below the existing Snapdragon 8 Elite in terms of performance, which should allow Android OEMs to increase their affordable flagship offerings among sub-brands, presumably via the likes of Redmi, Realme and iQOO.

To achieve this performance target, Qualcomm will equip the SM8845 with current generation Oryon CPU cores built on TSMC's N3P node. Also, the chipset should feature two prime CPU cores complemented by six performance cores. Other details remain unknown for now, including whether the SM8845 will debut alongside the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 this autumn.