Upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 flagship phones again rumored to be expensive

As per the announcement by a company executive at MWC 2024, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is set to debut this October. With that, we will see announcements from smartphone manufacturers about their new flagship phones. Like last year, it seems Xiaomi will be the very first to introduce new devices powered by the SoC, possibly the Xiaomi 15 series.

But unlike last year, we may not see the new flagships launch at around $500. Digital Chat Station, a well-known Weibo tipster, recently shared that the Xiaomi 15 series will be pricier than its predecessor. Now, the tipster claims that the wafer prices for the SoC have increased.

Of course, the information on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 being pricier than the predecessor doesn't only come from Digital Chat Station. Chris Patrick, Senior Vice President at Qualcomm, also hinted that the silicon's price would rise, likely due to the use of the cutting-edge N3E node from TSMC.

Getting back to the latest report from Digital Chat Station, the tipster says that the manufacturers that usually release new flagships in the CNY 3,000 range (around $423) will be affected by this price hike. To look back, the Redmi K70 Pro was the cheapest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 device (OnePlus 12 curr. $699.99 on Amazon).

It launched in China at a starting price of CNY 3,299 (around $465), and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is already said to be pretty pricey. If the cost of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 does see a rise, we may possibly not see the K70 Pro's successor matching the same value.