Qualcomm has quietly listed an underpowered variant of its flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chip with one fewer Performance core.

Qualcomm is developing a new high-end chipset that will be positioned below the Snapdragon 8 Elite (and even the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3).

Qualcomm introduced its Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile chipset in October last year, and the octa-core processor currently powers flagship devices from brands like Realme and OnePlus. Recently, the company quietly launched a new variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite featuring seven cores.

Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite 7-core version, aimed at foldable smartphones to reduce heat in sustained workloads.

The lower-tier offering comes as Qualcomm is rumored to be working on midrange and overclocked Snapdragon 8 Elite variants.

Clamshell foldables should benefit the most from the binned Snapdragon 8 Elite due to their limited cooling capacity. All the best Android phones that have already launched or are due for release later this year will use Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chip.