OnePlus Tipped to Launch First Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Phone; Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-Powered Handsets to Launch in October

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset was launched at its annual event on Wednesday, and handsets powered by the new flagship chip are expected to hit the market in the coming days. As per a tipster, OnePlus will become the first handset maker globally to introduce a smartphone with Qualcomm's purported 3nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip, which is expected to sit below the Elite model. Meanwhile, the Xiaomi 17 series is set to launch in China on Thursday with the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC, and the iQOO 15, Realme GT 8 Pro, Red Magic 11 Pro series, and several other flagship handsets are expected to make their debut in October.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Phones Launching Soon

In a Weibo post, tipster Digital Chat Station (translated from Chinese) claimed that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset will launch in global markets in September with the upcoming Xiaomi 17 series. The lineup is expected to include three models — Xiaomi 17, Xiaomi 17 Pro, and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, all powered by Qualcomm's new flagship SoC. The Chinese smartphone maker has confirmed that the Xiaomi 17 series will debut in China on Thursday, but there is no word on plans for a global release.

Meanwhile, the tipster claims that OnePlus will launch the first phone in global markets with a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip. It is currently unclear whether this handset will be the successor to the OnePlus 13R, which is powered by a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC.

The tipster also revealed several upcoming smartphones that are likely to launch in October, powered by the newly unveiled Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. The first batch of devices may include the Honor Magic 8 series, iQOO 15, Redmi K90 series, OnePlus 15, Realme GT 8 Pro, Red Magic 11 Pro, and the Nubia Z80 Ultra.

Notably, most of the aforementioned models are expected to be limited to the Chinese market and may not be available globally.

As per Qualcomm, the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor brings several upgrades over the existing Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. It is built on a 64-bit architecture based on TSMC's 3-nanometre fabrication process (N3P). The SoC offers up to 23 percent better performance and 20 percent improved efficiency compared to its predecessor.