Qualcomm has just dropped the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset and the first question most of you would ask is: how powerful is it really? It makes sense too because both Google and Samsung have introduced their in-house SoCs on their flagship phones over the past two months. While consumer devices with the new Snapdragon chip are still a few weeks away, I got a chance to test the platform on a reference device at the Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawai.
I had about 40 minutes with this reference device, so it wasn’t possible to run all the tests, but some of these scores give an early idea of where Qualcomm’s chipset stands against rival. Few disclaimers though: these tests weren’t run on a retail handset. Qualcomm had paired the 8 Elite Gen 5 chip with 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM, 1TB of UFS 4.1 storage and a 6.8-inch 3200×1440 AMOLED LTPO panel.
This is clearly a setup designed to get the best performance out of the device. Again, I am not sure if an actual phone will have 24GB of RAM. Anyway, this is a 3rd-generation Oryon CPU, built on Arm architecture. The Prime core now runs at 4.6GHz (up from 4.32GHz), while Performance cores can reach 3.62GHz. With refinements to cache and architecture, Qualcomm claims a 20 per cent performance uplift alongside 16 per cent better power efficiency.
Starting with AnTuTu, the device score over 4.2 million during our testing which is a major jump over last generation chipset. The highest score we got on any Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 4 powered phone was 2.8 million. So, clearly Qualcomm has gone all guns blazing this time. For context, the iPhone 17 Pro Max with A19 Pro chip score a little over 2.3 million in our testing.
Also read: Qualcomm introduces Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme putting Intel and AMD on alert
The phone also delivered a very impressive AI mark score suggesting significant improvement in the ability to handle AI-related tasks.
Geekbench 6 tests back that up: both single-core and multi-core results showed a strong jump over last year’s devices. It comfortably outpaces Google’s Tensor G5 and its multi-core results are significantly higher than Apple’s A19 Pro. That level of performance may be overkill for everyday browsing, but it’s a game-changer for video editing, gaming, and on-device AI workloads.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will debut in flagship devices from leading OEMs and smartphone brands in the coming days. Confirmed partners include Honor, iQOO, Nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, Poco, Realme, Redmi, RedMagic, ROG, Samsung, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE.
