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Qualcomm has introduced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, a high-end 8-series chipset designed to deliver near-flagship performance at a lower starting price than the Elite model. It borrows much of the Elite's architecture while trimming a few premium features to fit more affordable phones.
What’s new under the hood
The 8 Gen 5 is manufactured on a 3nm process and runs Qualcomm's third-generation Oryon CPU, with two prime cores clocked at 3.8 GHz and six performance cores at 3.32 GHz. Qualcomm compares the new chip to the two-year-old Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, claiming a 36% uplift in CPU tasks, an 11% GPU improvement, a 46% boost in AI workloads, and about 13% overall SoC power savings.
- Adreno 840 GPU with Frame Motion Engine 3.0 (same as the Elite, but without Adreno High-Performance Memory)
- Hexagon NPU delivering significant on-device AI gains and multi-modal input support
- Spectra image signal processor for advanced camera pipelines
- X80 5G Modem-RF System for fast, reliable connectivity
While the GPU and Frame Motion Engine mirror the Elite variant, Qualcomm has removed the Adreno HPM tier to better balance cost and power. The upgraded Hexagon NPU is a highlight, enabling faster AI features on device, from smarter photography to real-time multimodal processing that blends vision and voice input.
OnePlus will be first to bring the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 to market in the OnePlus Ace 6T/15R, and other brands such as iQOO, Motorola, and vivo are expected to announce handsets with the new chip soon. For consumers, that means flagship-like performance and AI capabilities are heading to more affordable flagships this cycle.
In short, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 aims to democratize high-end mobile performance: most of the Elite experience, at a friendlier price point.
Source: gsmarena
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