Qualcomm details Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 camera pipeline

At Snapdragon Summit 2026 Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, both built on a 2nm process. The headline Intelligent Pixel Control feature segments scenes pixel by pixel, and the ISP's bit depth doubles from 8 to 16 bits without increasing file sizes.

• Intelligent Pixel Control recognizes faces, hair, sky, grass and fabric and tunes each separately
• ISP bit depth doubles from 8 to 16 bits, but that data never reaches the saved JPEG
• The feature is available on the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, not just the Extreme
• The Xiaomi 18 series is the first lineup with the new chips, currently China-only