One of the first Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 flagship phones could be a spec monster

Qualcomm is expected to launch the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series at its annual Snapdragon Summit event in Hawaii on September 24, 2026. With this new SoC series, we’re expecting a wave of new Android flagships to follow, and one of the first could be the Xiaomi 18 Pro. Early leaks suggest there’s a noticeable price bump on the horizon, and a new leak now gives us a better idea of what could be in store for all the extra money that users would pay for the Xiaomi 18 Pro.

Noted leaker Digital Chat Station has shared on Weibo specifications of what is expected to be the Xiaomi 18 Pro, or at least an engineering prototype of it. According to the leaker, the Xiaomi 18 Pro could come with a 2nm flagship SoC (likely referring to either the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 or 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro). It could feature an “ultra clear” small, flat display, a 200MP “ultra-large sensor” primary camera, and a 200MP large-sensor telephoto macro camera.

The Xiaomi 18 Pro is also said to pack a ~7,000mAh battery, with support for 100W wired charging and support for wireless charging.

The leaker says there’s a chance the Xiaomi 18 Pro could also be upgraded to a dual-speaker setup, a larger vibration motor, and possibly other minor changes.

We’re expecting at least four phones in the upcoming Xiaomi 18 series: Xiaomi 18, Xiaomi 18 Pro, Xiaomi 18 Pro Max, and Xiaomi 18 Ultra. Presuming the company follows the trends it set with the Xiaomi 17 series, the base phone and the Ultra could see a wider global release, while the Pro and Pro Max could stay restricted to China.

For context, the Xiaomi 17 Pro came with a 6.3-inch display with narrow bezels, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, a triple-camera rear setup with 50MP sensors, and a 6,300mAh battery. The rumored upgrades to the primary and telephoto cameras to 200MP would mark a big year-on-year jump.

What made the Xiaomi 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max interesting, aside from their top-of-the-line specs, was the unique 2.7-inch secondary rear AMOLED display that could be used to view notifications, serve as the camera viewfinder, and more. We’re expecting to see more of this display on Xiaomi’s upcoming flagship. The optimist in us hopes for a palatable price tag, but given the industry-wide price increases driven by the RAM crisis, this could be wishful thinking. We’ll keep you updated when we learn more.