Since the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 had a toned-down version with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, we’re expecting the Snapdragon 8 Elite to have a similar treatment. There are rumors of a Snapdragon 8s Elite, and Qualcomm silently revealed a Snapdragon 8 Elite that has 7 cores instead of 8 cores. The idea of a 7-core Snapdragon 8 Elite variant might sound unusual, but Apple has doing something similar with its M series chips where there are variants that have one less CPU or GPU core.
Carrying the internal model name SM8750-3-AB, the difference of this variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite is that it has one less performance core. We’re unsure how that will impact overall performance—we have yet got our hands on a phone with a Snapdragon 8 Elite—but the best explanation why such variant exists is that it’s a binned version. That means they are made from the same fabrication, but Qualcomm decided to disable one Performance core since it most likely didn’t meet their standards. Save for that, everything else appears to be the same as the 8-core variant—at least based on Qualcomm’s spec sheet.
One of the benefits of this 7-core Snapdragon 8 Elite variant is that it should be more affordable than its 8-core sibling, giving brands a more cost-effective option for their flagship phones. We’re not sure which brands, but it will not be surprising if flagship killers will opt for this instead of a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3/Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.