Rumours of Motorola Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship appear with release window mentioned

In recent years, Motorola has been one of the Android OEMs to deliver smartphones with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 series silicon. For instance, the Edge X30 became the world's first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered smartphone in December 2021, albeit only a few days before Xiaomi presented the Xiaomi 12 and Xiaomi 12 Pro with the same chipset. A year later, Motorola introduced the Moto X40, a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 successor that also preceded its Xiaomi 13 series counterparts.

This time, nearly a dozen Android OEMs have already beaten Motorola to releasing Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered smartphones, including ASUS, OnePlus, Samsung and Xiaomi, among others. Instead, Motorola kicked off 2024 with the Moto G Play 2024, Moto G04 and Moto G24, which are all firmly mid-range handsets. Allegedly, it could be a while before Motorola releases its next flagship in any capacity.

For now, the company is rumoured to be working towards a Q2 2024 window for presenting its inaugural smartphone underpinned by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. On the one hand, this would align with the first anniversary of the Moto X40's global variants, which Motorola sells as the Edge 40 Pro in some markets and the Edge+ (2023) (curr. $731.29 on Amazon) in others. On the other hand, Motorola typically releases flagship models in China first, with a four-month gap existing between the Moto X40 and Edge 40 Pro. Thus, Q3 2024 could come around before the Edge 50 Pro or Edge+ (2024) appear.