Qualcomm has revealed its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. After waves of anticipation, Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit uncovered the next-gen chip that will come with top-tier smartphone models of next year. The latest chip, with its advanced abilities, will boost Android performance across gaming, multitasking, and AI.
Along with the chip launch, the developer company has promised double-digit efficiency, AI advancements, and a reimagined video pipeline, which will mark a genuine leap in the upcoming smartphone experience.
The successor to the 8 Elite, this latest chipset is built on a 3nm process. Announcements indicate the chipset uses a 2+6 core CPU architecture, where two ‘Prime’ cores are clocked up to 4.6 GHz. The six ‘Performance’ cores will boast a 3.62 GHz performance. Furthermore, Qualcomm claimed an approximately 20% increase in processing performance, along with around a 35% improvement in efficiency.
The graphics and AI part also received an upgrade, where the Adreno GPU will deliver a 23% boost in gaming performance and lower the performance to 20%. Further, the Hexagon NPU is claimed to have around 37% speed improvement.
Connectivity is also upgraded with the integration of X85 modem and FastConnect stack. These will support AI-assisted Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi 7, and lower latency for real-time tasks. Image quality will also be better with this next-generation chip set.
Since Qualcomm took it to the global stage and announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, speculation around which smartphones will integrate the most powerful chip has begun. Multiple renowned Android companies are already committed to integrating the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in their upcoming flagships.
Xiaomi 17 series is confirmed to come with this next-gen chip for all its models, including the standard one, Pro, and Pro Max. Leaks suggest that OnePlus will also join Xiaomi in the list with OnePlus 15. Reportedly, Samsung may also join them for their Galaxy S26 Ultra in specific markets.
Other names that leaks and rumors frequently suggest are Honor (Magic series), iQOO, realme GT8 Pro, OPPO, vivo, ASUS (ROG), ZTE, Sony, POCO, and Redmi.
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Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chips mark a significant leap in the industry, especially for gaming Android phones. For gamers, the 23% GPU uplift, combined with features like mesh shading, tile memory heap, and Unreal Engine 5, makes a significant difference in delivering richer visuals and smoother frame rates.
Multitasking and productivity also become more efficient. An upgraded NPU suggests more responsive performance, especially when running heavy workloads such as video editing and camera processing.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s performance has undoubtedly raised the bar, but whether it will revolutionize the Android experience will depend on how well device makers, game studios, and app developers fully implement its potential.