iQOO and Qualcomm on iQOO 16 launching in India, Extreme chip made for the agentic AI era, and more

At IMC 2026, Qualcomm announced its new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series for India, with iQOO, Motorola, and Xiaomi named as three of the first brands to launch flagships on the top-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6. On the sidelines of the event, I spoke to Qualcomm’s Saurabh Arora and iQOO’s Nipun Marya about why Qualcomm now has two Elite chips, what the Extreme version offers, and what to expect from the iQOO 16. The biggest takeaway: iQOO has officially confirmed the iQOO 16 will launch in India.

iQOO 16 is coming to India

Rumours had been swirling about whether the iQOO 16 would make it to India after its launch in China, and Marya said the company received hundreds of messages asking the same question. “iQOO 16 is the big story,” he said, confirming that the phone is on its way to the country.

That’s where the details end for now. We asked whether we should expect a launch toward the end of October or in November, but iQOO didn’t share a timeline. Pricing wasn’t discussed either, and Marya didn’t elaborate on India specifications.

What he did say is that the phone will combine the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 with OriginOS 7 and iQOO’s M16 display, a 2K panel with a 165Hz refresh rate that the company calls the only one of its kind in the world. Marya also teased “very surprising, very unique” AI features on the phone, but said he couldn’t say more yet.

Why iQOO went with the Extreme chip

iQOO has used Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon chips in all of its flagships since the brand launched in 2020, and Marya said the company is the only brand that can say so. “That is where our mouth is, and that is where our money is,” he said of iQOO’s performance legacy, adding that the combination of OriginOS 7 optimisations and the new chip should make for a popular performer.

On whether it would have made sense to pick the cheaper, non-Extreme chip, Marya acknowledged there is a cost difference between the two, but said that a flagship has to live up to its name. He framed the iQOO 16 as a “complete flagship experience,” one that goes beyond raw CPU and GPU performance to cover the camera, display, AI features, and multitasking.

Why Qualcomm launched two Elite chips

This is the first time Qualcomm has introduced two Elite chipsets in the same generation: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6. Arora said both share the same foundation, and both improve on last year’s chip across CPU, GPU, and other tiers, so the non-Extreme version is not a lesser product. “Think of 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 as the pinnacle of every element of a chipset,” he said, pointing to the latest CPU and the strongest NPU Qualcomm has built.

The Extreme chip is designed to run what Qualcomm calls agentic AI use cases, where the phone doesn’t just respond when asked but anticipates what you need. Arora pointed to the chip’s always-on, low-power sensing hub, which lets the phone stay aware of what’s happening around the user. His example was paying the bill after dinner: a phone that understands context could message the valet for your car or book a cab without being prompted.

Why a 5GHz CPU matters for AI

The 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 is the first mobile CPU to touch 5GHz in benchmarks, according to Qualcomm, using two prime cores and six performance cores. Arora said a new cache arrangement lets the prime and performance cores work together without waiting on each other for access.

He also made the case that CPU speed matters more in the agentic AI era than it might seem. The CPU is the part that invokes AI agents, he explained, so a fast one ensures there’s no lag when an agent is called. GPU and NPU remain important, he added, but the CPU is what controls everything.

Arora also said Qualcomm works with partners like iQOO across the CPU, GPU, NPU, AI, camera, and software layers, rather than optimising a single area.

What we still don’t know

Launch timing and India pricing are the two big unknowns. For context, the iQOO 16 starts at CNY 5,999 (around Rs 86,000) in China, 43 percent higher than the iQOO 15’s launch price there, and a tipster recently suggested a price near Rs 1 lakh. But my conversation with Nipun and Saurabh told me the iQOO 16, with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, should deliver flagship performance and AI readiness that power users in the agentic AI era can expect. Whether the iQOO 16 delivers on that promise smoothly is something we will test after its launch. You can check the latest on the iQOO 16 here.