The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro may be a dream for Android gamers, as it tries to justify its eye-watering cost

Gamers on Android phones better start saving right now, as the upcoming handset crop will cost a fortune.

It's not just that RAM and storage chips have skyrocketed in terms of cost—the price of the next high-end Snapdragon chipset could be heartbreaking if your heart is your wallet.

The absurdly titled Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro (what's next Qualcomm, a Pro Max variant in 2027?!) could, however, be a treat for hardcore gamers.

The two variants

While we're patiently waiting for the official Snapdragon Summit next month, where Qualcomm will premiere its new silicon, we're deep in the leaks.

As we've told you earlier, there could be two 8 Gen 6 chipsets:

• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro
• Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6

As you can correctly guess, the Gen 6 Pro is what most Android flagships would be after by default. The problem is that this chipset is rumored to cost over $300 and this would inevitably transfer to the price tag that end users like you and me pay.

Slicing things up

So what are we getting for the inflated price? Quite possibly, a GPU boost that'll make gamers happy.

The upcoming Gen 6 series GPUs are rumored to have six slices. Since a GPU slice is essentially one processing block inside the graphics processor, more slices generally mean the GPU can handle more graphics work at the same time. This should improve not just gaming performance, but 3D rendering and some AI-related tasks, too.

I hope this means an even better power efficiency.

How many slices do other chipsets have?

For example, the Snapdragon 8 Elite and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 have three GPU slices, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (the non-Elite version) has just two slices.

Beware that doubling the slices won't automatically mean you'll get double the GPU performance, since we have to factor in things like clock speed and cache.

Anyway, the OnePlus 16 will surely pack this chipset, as the company is rumored to move towards the gamers. Too bad that the company is pulling out of the US and the EU, though.

Prices are up, up, up

Inflation is out of control and what used to cost ~$120 (the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that was used in 2022 phones) went up to $200 (the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the Galaxy S24 Ultra from 2024) and we're now in the $300+ territory for late 2026 phones.

Yikes! Maybe now is a good time to consider the Galaxy S25 Ultra—a fine phone for gaming—whose price plummets at Walmart after a hefty $405 discount!

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