The Snapdragon 8 Elite is Qualcomm’s upcoming powerhouse, now that MediaTek Dimensity 9400 has been announced.
According to rumours, the SoC is capable of exceeding 4GHz speeds, thanks to its scorching fast prime cores. As a result of Qualcomm’s raw power push, heat generation and battery life might be sacrificed. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chip has been benchmarked in three variants over the past few weeks.
It appears that the standard version runs at a base frequency of 2.78GHz and peaks at 4.09GHz. Meanwhile, Samsung is reportedly testing overclocked versions of its Galaxy S25 series, which reach 2.90GHz/4.19GHz and 3.53GHz/4.47GHz.
According to a new rumour, these numbers could cause more harm than good. It appears that even the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite chip version may struggle with thermal management and battery life.
High on performance but heats a lot?
In normal use, the silicon draws over 20W of power and reaches temperatures of 98.5°C (209.5°F). According to the report, there was no way of reducing power draw or cooling things down by throttling.
Particularly concerning is that the leak is allegedly from a three-month-old “official version” of the chip. With such a high power draw, brands can expect their flagship phones with this chip to feature batteries of over 6000mAh.
Qualcomm likely optimized the chip in three months due to the significant development time. By the end of this month, hopefully, these thermal and power issues will be resolved.
