What you need to know
- Qualcomm China posted a teaser for a new Snapdragon announcement on May 20.
- The company is expected to launch the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 refresh.
- Qualcomm could also launch the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 chipset at the event.
About six months since the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, Qualcomm appears to be gearing up to introduce its refresher, according to a teaser posted by the company on Monday.
9to5Google spotted the post on Weibo, with Qualcomm China confirming that a "new Snapdragon mobile platform" will be announced on May 20. Previous rumors indicated that we could see the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ chip in early May when the Qualcomm 5G Summit took place. However, the event came and went with no such announcement, with the company focusing on 5G and the latest capabilities of its Snapdragon X70 modem.
Little is known about the upcoming chip, but it will likely arrive with small performance improvements over its predecessor, similar to Qualcomm's "Plus" variants in the past. Rumors point to the chipmaker switching to TMSC as opposed to Samsung to manufacture the chip, likely due to low yields of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 using Samsung's process and issues with throttling that have plagued phones like the Galaxy S22.
If this is the case, phones with the new chip should theoretically perform better and cooler than the best Android phones launched in the first half of the year. One leaker suggested that Lenovo, Motorola, OnePlus, and Xiaomi would be among the first to feature the chip in their devices, which is likely why the livestream is being teased on a Chinese social platform. That said, we could see the chip arrive in other devices, including Samsung's upcoming foldables.
In addition to the flagship chipset, Qualcomm is also rumored to finally announce the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, which would likely power upcoming mid-range 5G smartphones. It would be the first time Qualcomm launched a 700-series chip with its new naming scheme that it unveiled late last year. For now, it's unclear if this will make the May 20 announcement, but we'll keep our eyes peeled.
