Remember the following shorthand when looking through Qualcomm’s lineup of SoCs: “s” is lower, “+” is higher than the zero-suffix chips. So the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 was lower-performing than the 8 Gen 3, but we did see it in a lot of phones thanks to its branding implying it’s part of the same family as the flagship SoC.
Since that’s worked so well, Qualcomm will be at it again in 2025 with the Snapdragon 8s Elite. This is currently in testing, and according to prolific Chinese leakster Digital Chat Station is managing performance that slots it in between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
That’s not too shabby and the first smartphones to be powered by the 8s Elite are allegedly going to show up around April. Some of those handsets will even have 7,000 mAh batteries, just like the Realme Neo7 that’s about to launch later this month.
Source (in Chinese)