Delhi Delhi. Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Elite brings notable performance improvements, including support for on-device multimodal intelligence that will enable smartphones to natively deliver generative artificial intelligence features. But the upcoming Android flagship smartphone will also allow upcoming Android flagship smartphones to support up to eight years of Android OS upgrades. According to Qualcomm's SVP and GM, Christopher Patrick, the Snapdragon 8 Elite can easily support eight years of Android OS updates, allowing OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to extend software support. He said that the company is working with different brands to support the software for a longer period of time, thereby maximizing the shelf life of the upcoming smartphones.

This allows consumers to continue using the smartphone without replacing it. This is a big claim, especially from an AI perspective as the capabilities and size of language models are expected to increase. Many OEMs have already announced the launch timelines of their next flagship phones. OnePlus is launching OnePlus 13 later this month. Realme is also launching its GT 7 Pro smartphone in October. Asus is preparing to launch its flagship phones along with brands like Oppo, Xiaomi and Honor. All these smartphones will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which means they will support up to eight Android upgrades. However, this is not necessary as the responsibility lies with the OEM.

Currently, Samsung is the only OEM that offers up to seven years of Android version upgrades on its flagship models. Its next flagship phone will likely use the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which means it could get an extra year of Android version upgrades. Google also offers seven years of Android version upgrades on its latest Pixel phones, but it's unclear whether their successors will get an extra year since they use Google's Tensor chipset. Apple, on the other hand, offers up to six years of software support on the iPhone.