Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC yesterday with some performance and power efficiency improvements over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and 16 companies have confirmed to launch smartphones with this new chip at the helm, starting Q3 2022. While we don’t have an exact date for the launch of the first Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1-powered smartphone yet, Asus has announced that the ROG Phone 6 will be the first gaming phone to come with the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC under the hood.

Additionally, Realme’s founder and CEO, Mr. Sky Li, announced that the Realme GT 2 Master Explorer Edition will be one of the first Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1-powered smartphones to come to the market.

The Realme GT 2 Master Explorer Edition will be introduced in China, but it’s unclear if it will make it to the global markets. Last year’s GT Master Explorer Edition powered by the Snapdragon 870 was China-exclusive, so we aren’t betting on its successor to launch globally

While we await more details about the ROG Phone 6 and GT 2 Master Explorer Edition, you can head this way to check our announcement coverage of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 to know more about it, and here to find out how the chip performed in benchmark tests on an engineering device sent to us by Asus.