2025’s flagship phones are going to be a lot more expensive
Qualcomm will be launching its next-gen flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, later this year in October. Given the company’s dominance in the smartphone market, there’s a good chance the bulk of 2025’s flagship handsets will use the new chipset. While this is good news in terms of performance, be prepared to see more expensive flagship phones.
This is according to a prediction by analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who in a post on Medium, has predicted that the price of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be higher than its predecessor. The analyst claims that we could see a 25-30% increase in price over the Gen 3. He also predicts that this could end up costing $190-$200 per chip.
This is because the Gen 4 is expected to be built on TSMC’s latest N3E node. Since obviously companies won’t be absorbing the costs, those costs could be passed down to customers. We’re not sure how much more expensive this will translate to, but if you are planning to upgrade in 2025, then don’t be surprised if flagship phones are considerably more expensive than 2024.
This isn’t the first time we’re hearing that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could be expensive. If it ends up being too costly, it could force manufacturers to seek alternatives. MediaTek’s newer Dimensity 9000 chipsets have been getting favorable reviews So maybe more MediaTek phones in 2025 could be a possibility.