Tushar Mehta / Android Authority
Qualcomm has not one but two top-tier chipsets to pick from for 2026 flagship Android handsets. First, we had the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which packs the company’s most powerful CPU, GPU, and AI components into a cutting-edge manufacturing process. It’s the best of the best, but it doesn’t come cheap.
If you don’t want to spend a small fortune on your next flagship, Qualcomm has now announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 to tempt you with. It boasts many of the same features and capabilities, but with a performance point that’s just slightly behind last year’s Elite chip. It’s still fast, just not the very fastest.
Would you buy a phone powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5? 2565 votes Yes. 41 % Maybe, it depends on benchmarks. 26 % No, I want Elite performance. 19 % No, it'll probably still be too expensive. 13 %
The Elite Gen 5 obviously catches my eye as a performance enthusiast, but in the same way I marvel at an NVIDIA RTX 5090, I’m not prepared to remortgage my house to own one. Yes, yes, I know these next-gen flagships are going to be great for photography, AI, and other bits too, but when it comes to spending my own money or making recommendations to friends and family, even $999 is pushing the limits of most people’s budgets.
So instead, I’m much more excited to see what brands can come up with based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5. We might be due for some new flagship-killing mid-range models or more aggressively priced “Ultra” models.
Top-tier performance without the cost
Rushil Agrawal / Android Authority
A couple of handsets are already confirmed to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5. The OnePlus 15R is set to arrive before the end of the year. If it’s anything like its rather spiffy predecessor (the OnePlus 13R), we’re hopefully looking at a package with robust battery life, flexible camera, snappy charging, and plenty of performance for somewhere around $599. That seems like it’ll be a great deal.
The other potential upside is that the 8 Gen 5 might not be quite as hot and perhaps even more battery-efficient. Based on our testing of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, it’s extremely fast, but it can’t sustain its peak capabilities for very long without specialized cooling setups that are unlikely to fit in mainstream handsets. Our early stress tests of the flagship OnePlus 15 caused it to shut down, but hopefully that won’t be a problem for the 15R and the 8 Gen 5 (though we’ll be sure to test it!).
... continue reading