- The chip shortage has led to three generations of the Snapdragon 8 Elite in phones hitting the market.
- Older chips don’t necessarily mean noticeably poorer performance.
- Qualcomm built a chip for an AI-driven world, but it also made one that might withstand the chip shortage that AI has caused.
The chip shortage and accompanying price increases across the market have put financial strain on both manufacturers and consumers. Meanwhile, the pace of development of pricier processors and the even more expensive devices they power hasn’t slowed. But according to one industry insider, we may just find a savior from that unaffordable future thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC.
Over on Weibo, leaker and mobile industry insider Digital Chat Station points out that three generations of the Qualcomm chip — the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, and Snapdragon 8 Elite — are out in the market at the same time. Normally we think of the new replacing the old, so having so many still around at once is a bit unusual — then again, we’re in an unusual economic situation.
