Snapdragon 8 Elite Makes 8 Years of Android Updates a Reality; Can Qualcomm Deliver Though?

Your next flagship might get up to 8 years of Android update support with recently-launched Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. Qualcomm’s new top-end processor is bringing a lot more power, but also addressing some pain points that manufacturers have had to deal with for a while. One of them was the limitation of the processor to deliver longer software support for devices.

As shared by Nicolas La Rocco, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and general manager of handsets Chris Patrick informed tech journalists that the new CPU will be supported with 8 years of OS updates. Android expert Mishaal Rehman talked about this in his X post, where he mentioned that the company will provide 8 years of BSP (Board support package) with the 8 Elite processor.

He also stated that this includes the Android version that the phone ships with, so a total of 7 years of updates. This is still big news for OEMs, as the current processors only support four major updates and four security patches. As a result, only a few brands, like Google (which uses Tensor CPUs) and Samsung, were able to pledge extended support for their products.

This doesn’t mean all brands will offer 7 years of updates for their devices, but it does open doors for OEMs that currently only offer 4, 5, or even 6 years of support, thus extending the longevity of Android smartphones. How this will pan out, only the future can tell us and again, it is up to the brands themselves to honor the promise of longer support. But it is good on Qualcomm’s part to natively offer this longevity on their end.