TL;DR Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 smartphone processor.
The chip has the expected CPU, GPU, and AI gains, but it’s also the first mobile chip to support the APV codec for higher-quality video capture.
The Xiaomi 17 series is the first phone family with this chipset, but Samsung, OnePlus and others are also confirmed to adopt it.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite powered the majority of global flagship Android phones throughout 2025, and we can understand why. Qualcomm’s chip brought a major CPU upgrade thanks to custom Oryon cores, a significant GPU upgrade, and plenty of AI and camera features.
Now, the US chip designer has revealed the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which is expected to power phones like the Galaxy S26 series, OnePlus 13, and Xiaomi 17 series. Here’s what you need to know about Qualcomm’s latest high-end silicon.
Edging closer to phones with 5GHz chips
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
The Snapdragon 8 Elite topped out at 4.32GHz (4.47GHz for Galaxy phones), but the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 isn’t stopping here. Qualcomm’s new chip offers peak speeds of 4.6GHz, while rumors point to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy running at 4.74GHz. Either way, it’s kind of crazy that smartphones are on the verge of running at 5GHz.
The 8 Elite Gen 5 maintains a 2+6 core CPU layout, featuring two Prime cores at 4.6GHz and six Performance cores running at 3.62GHz. Qualcomm says you can expect 20% better performance compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite, although it’s unclear if this applies to single- or multi-core workloads.
Qualcomm’s CPU also offers 35% better efficiency, while the entire processor delivers 16% power savings. So even if your next phone doesn’t have a particularly large battery (here’s looking at you, Samsung), you should still get decent battery life.
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