GoKawiilPaul Jones / Android Authority
With the Galaxy Z Flip 7, Samsung made the controversial choice to ship the foldable with its in-house Exynos 2500 chip everywhere in the world. To many, the shift from Snapdragon to Exynos was viewed as a downgrade, especially in a year when Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite had a breakthrough moment. Motorola put a Snapdragon 8 Elite chip inside the Razr Ultra 2025 in the same year, padding its lead over Samsung and the Galaxy Z Flip 7 on the spec sheet and in most benchmarks.
Samsung changed course with the newly announced Galaxy Z Flip 8, which runs on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip in North America. It’s easily the biggest Galaxy Z Flip 8 upgrade on paper, considering the displays, battery capacity, and cameras haven’t materially changed.
After using the Galaxy Z Flip 7 on and off for a year, I’m puzzled as to what problem the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip solves. Instead, the Galaxy Z Flip 8’s chip change could introduce new issues, such as overheating or subpar battery life.
Are you excited about Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 8? 4 votes Yes, Snapdragon is better than Exynos 50 % No, I'm worried about overheating 50 % No, I'm worried about battery life 0 % Something else (comments) 0 %
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip worries me
Hadlee Simons / Android Authority
We’ve seen a bunch of phones launch with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform so far, and we have a general idea of how it will perform. Samsung’s own Galaxy S26 lineup serves as a preview of what we can expect from the Galaxy Z Flip 8. Both the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy Z Flip 8 use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy in some regions and the Exynos 2600 in others. Compared to the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, the “for Galaxy” variant features an overclocked prime core running at up to 4.74 GHz.
From the very beginning, one thing about the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has been consistent: it runs hot. The OnePlus 15 had major overheating issues tied to the chip, and it required a post-launch fix to address the thermal issues. The REDMAGIC 11 PRO literally uses liquid cooling to sustain the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip’s peak performance during a stress test. And the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy inside the Galaxy S26 Ultra does indeed suffer from thermal throttling, as our GPU tests showed.
One thing about the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has been consistent — it runs hot.
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