Xiaomi has only just released the Xiaomi 15, which it presented last month alongside the Xiaomi 15 Pro. While the pair can be purchased with Qualcomm's recent Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, this is only true in China for the time being. In fact, Xiaomi has not offered any hints about availability outside its home market for either device just yet.

Based on recent release cycles though, Xiaomi will only make the smaller Xiaomi 15 available internationally. In the meantime, the Xiaomi 14, Xiaomi 14 Ultra and Xiaomi 14T Pro (curr. $699.50 on Amazon) serve as the company's current global flagships. Nonetheless, there is already evidence that Xiaomi is actively developing a next-generation model with an unreleased Qualcomm chipset.

As the screenshot below shows,  has discovered a reference to the SM8850 in what he claims is HyperOS 2.0 code. In other words, Xiaomi could be cooking something up with a second-generation Snapdragon 8 Elite, likely the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2 or Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. Although it is early days for now, we would not be surprised if this finding related to a prototype that underpins the development of devices like the Xiaomi 16 and Xiaomi 16 Pro.