The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could be bad news for flagship phone prices in 2025

Qualcomm told us back at the Snapdragon Summit that its upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor could see a price hike over the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 used in top Android phones. It now sounds like this could be a substantial price increase.

Long-time leaker Digital Chat Station claimed on Weibo that the price of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (bearing the model number SM8750) will “definitely increase significantly.” The leaker added that one manufacturer might cancel its upcoming Pro flagship phone altogether due to the price hike. No exact figures were given for the increase, but this is still bad news for manufacturers of high-end Android phones.

Higher costs to be passed to consumers?

The processor is one of the biggest costs associated with a smartphone (alongside the display and cameras), so a significant increase here could have deep-rooted consequences. Manufacturers can choose to respond to a price hike like this in several ways.

One of the most common solutions is for OEMs to simply increase the device’s price, passing the cost to consumers. But history tells us that manufacturers could also make cutbacks in other areas (e.g. cameras, build quality, screen) if they want to stick with the same price. We could also see more brands adopting chips like the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 instead, which sits a rung below the absolute top-tier Snapdragon silicon in terms of performance, features, and price.

Either way, this wouldn’t be the first time Qualcomm delivered a major price increase for its high-end chips. 2020’s Snapdragon 865 was bundled with an external 5G modem, and this reportedly came at a significant cost. A Xiaomi executive confirmed back in 2020 that processor and modem costs for the Snapdragon 865-toting Xiaomi Mi 10 were double that of the Xiaomi Mi 9 (running the Snapdragon 855). This resulted in the Xiaomi Mi 10 being ~$120 to ~$140 more expensive than the Mi 9.

The good news is that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be the first smartphone chipset with Qualcomm’s custom Oryon CPU technology, promising a major leap in performance over Apple’s iPhones. So consumers who care about peak performance might want to consider phones with this chipset.