Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
TL;DR Qualcomm recently introduced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, following availability of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
We asked readers to share their thoughts about the new chip, and whether they found it an appealing option.
A large fraction of respondents appear to be fans, while others still have a few reservations.
Not every car needs to be a Ferrari. Even if you have the means to pick one up on a whim, just being a very fast car doesn’t necessarily make it the ideal vehicle for every occasion — god forbid you need to store anything in the trunk.
That same situation applies to smartphones and the chips powering them. Every year, we see companies like Qualcomm introduce their latest silicon, trying to wow us with performance metrics that make the previous generation’s chips look positively glacial in comparison. That’s an important part of progress, absolutely, but just because there’s a new super-high-end option out there doesn’t mean it’s the best chip for the phone you need.
Just about a month ago, Qualcomm announced its Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, a modern 3nm component, but one with specs a little dialed-back compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
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Even though it’s not the absolute fastest chip in town, Qualcomm has put together an offering here that looks like it makes a fair amount of sense on paper: The chip mixes features from the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and the even earlier Snapdragon 8 Elite, and while it doesn’t quite hit the raw performance of either, it still manages to improve a lot over the 8 Gen 3 — and perhaps most importantly, won’t demand the same premium price tag as those more capable chips.
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