A Qualcomm executive had already said that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 would be a more expensive upgrade than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but soon cooler heads may prevail to make you pay less. This uptick comes as Qualcomm shifts to in-house CPU designs, forcing smart device manufacturers to rethink price and margin strategies. However, a new report mentions that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2, the successor to that chipset, could be even pricier to manufacture and have greater implications for smartphone profit margins.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 to Launch Next Year, High Costs May Impact Smartphone Profits, No Price Revealed
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 will bring an increased cost for smartphone vendors next year, according to KiPost, as noted by a tipster and Android Authority. The exact pricing is still unknown, but the Snapdragon 8 Elite is expected to cost around $240, so its successor may not come cheap. Qualcomm is supposedly already starting test runs for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 ahead of its expected timeline which can mean drastic improvements over the generation before it.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite and MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 have made advances but yet are found to lack Scalability Matrix Extensive (SME), a thing that fine-tunes complex workloads to deliver better single-core and multi-core performance. Do note that it’s applicable to an alleged Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2, and also a Dimensity 9500 which is said to be able to secure a similar 20% multi-core performance boost with architectural improvements.
Qualcomm will most likely launch them to production on TSMC’s latest 3nm N3P N3E process, which adds incremental improvements over the previous N3 node. It is possible the company could be talking to Samsung about reducing wafer prices, but only if Samsung overcomes its low yields foundry issues on their new 3nm GAA technology.
While these changes suggest room for performance improvements, the increasing cost of advanced chipmaking is still worrying. Until such time as major breakthroughs in lithography technology happen, high wafer production costs are likely to remain a drag on mobile phone pricing and profitability.
FAQs
Why is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 expected to affect smartphone profits?
Its higher production cost will force manufacturers to reassess pricing and profitability.
- Advertisement -When is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 expected to launch?
Qualcomm is testing it early, suggesting a launch sometime in 2025.
