Both Qualcomm and MediaTek have constantly pushed up the releases of their flagship chipsets for the year over the past few generations. The Dimensity 9400 and Snapdragon 8 Elite both debuted in mid-October last year and it now appears their successors could launch even earlier this year.
As revealed by Digital Chat Station, the first set of Android flagships this year is scheduled to launch in October at the latest, likely alongside the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 and Dimensity 9500. The Snapdragon 8 Elite's successor was previously reported to launch in early October, but it appears the chipset and its MediaTek counterpart could debut earlier—in September.
Supposedly, OEMs adopting the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 and Dimensity 9500 could push forward the debuts of their flagships to September this year, before China's National Day (October 1). Typically, Xiaomi, OnePlus, and Vivo are the first manufacturers to adopt the new chipsets, making it likely that the Xiaomi 16 series, OnePlus 14, and Vivo X300 series could be announced as early as September this time out.
While that's hardly groundbreaking information—those devices will remain exclusive to the Chinese market till 2026 anyway—it does mean next-gen Android flagships like the Xiaomi 16 and OnePlus 14 could go on sale within a few weeks of the iPhone 17 series this year. For some perspective, both the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 series hit store shelves in the final third of September.