How Much Will Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro Price For Qualcomm Partners This Year?

Qualcomm will be one of the first companies, alongside Apple and MediaTek, to launch the industry’s first 2nm chipset. However, like the iPhone maker, the San Diego company is expected to launch two versions, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6. Given that TSMC’s next-gen manufacturing process will be much more expensive than the 3nm ‘N3P’ node at $30,000 per wafer, we can expect that the SoC will be more expensive for Qualcomm’s partners; the only question is, how much? Here, we discuss how much smartphone manufacturers should expect to pay for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro.

Looking at the price of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro should top $300, with rising DRAM and NAND prices making things even more difficult for phone makers.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite marks the first time Qualcomm has ditched an ARM CPU design for its in-house Oryon core, which is why the company feels free to upgrade for its customers. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 improves on Oryon’s core design, leveraging third-generation architecture to deliver better performance and efficiency.

Unfortunately, Qualcomm partners are forced to pay around $280 each for one of these bad boys. While the final numbers depend on individual contracts, volumes and other factors, it’s no secret that these chipsets have slowly become expensive until their prices are outside the comfort zone of some phone makers.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro will likely be the tipping point of the aforementioned comfort zone, as previous rumors suggested that while the top five Android smartphone manufacturers have opted to use this SoC, it will only be used on their most premium offerings, meaning that the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 will make up the majority of shipments.

We also need to mention that countless rumors suggest that Qualcomm and MediaTek will switch to TSMC’s 2nm ‘N2P’ process instead of N2 to get adequate shipments and have an advantage over Apple’s A20 and A20 Pro in achieving higher CPU frequencies. Considering the N2P variant brings slight improvements over the N2, expect TSMC to charge more.

Unfortunately, this is bad news for Qualcomm’s phone partners, and while we don’t know how much the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro will cost, looking at the price of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, we expect it to top $300, with each unit expected to cost $320. Of course, these SoCs could be more expensive or affordable, depending on various circumstances, but let readers try the poll below and decide how much Qualcomm’s top-end 2nm silicon will cost when it launches later this year.

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