- Qualcomm announced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform for future smartphones
- It focuses not only on running AI features but also collecting information for future AI models
- The first Elite Gen 5 telephones come from Xiaomi and it will probably run a rumored Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra
At the Snapdragon -Summit Meeting, Qualcomm today announced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 mobile platform, the chipset, which is likely to operate this year’s latest flagship Android smartphones, like the supposed Samsung Galaxy S26 and OnePlus 14. Of course, the platform focuses on strengthening AI features, Machine learning models.
Model Qualcomm has in mind is so -called Agentic AI. The concept of Agentic AI is a machine learning tool that makes everything for you. Whatever you might want to do with your smartphone, instead of tapping and pushing, you just talk to the AI agent. It will find out the necessary steps and take these actions.
In addition to faster application processing and larger graphics functions, Qualcomm focuses more holistically on a future with AI in the center. As it has said for years, AI is the new UI, which means that artificial intelligence will be the interface we use to control our smartphones and laptops.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 uses your phone as training data for future AI
While previous chipset has included a Neural Treatment Unit (NPU) to handle machine learning tools such as large language models (LLMS), Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will have improved options to collect sensor data from your smartphone. It may include your camera, microphone, accelerometer (movement) and magnetometer (compass) and all other sensors that collect data.
Why does Snapdragon need your sensor data? Qualcomm says past AI models have been trained on data from the Internet, but it plans to utilize its position within millions of devices to collect all the training data it can from your smartphone’s sensors. If you own a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 device, you will use the device every day create training data that can be used for future AI models.
This means that Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 does not only generate images with generative AI tools, it will also capture images from the camera sensors or audio from the microphones – data from any of the on board sensors – to feed future machine learning models. These models still need to be built, but telephone manufacturers and AI developers will have more tools in Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 than ever before.
Is Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 the fastest mobile platform? Yes.
Qualcomm says its new chipset is the fastest mobile platform you find, a shot directly on Apple, which made exactly the same requirement for its Apple A19 Pro chipset on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone Air. Previously, the Snapdragon 8 elite was the fastest chipset for multicore performance, while the Apple chips were faster on one-core benchmarks. This year’s Apple A19 Pro was the fastest on both types of tests.
I had a chance to benchmark the new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 on a reference device, and so far Qualcomm’s claims have proven to be true, although it can change when I test the new platform on a real, retail smartphone.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is the fastest phone I’ve tested. I tested it against a Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra with a Snapdragon 8 Elite For Galaxy The chips inside and against an iPhone 17 Pro Max with Apple A19 Pro chipset. In each benchmark test I tried from 3Dmark and Geekbench, Snapdragon beat the Gen 5 chipset the other platforms.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 seems much faster than the Snapdragon 8 elite and marginally faster than the Apple A19 Pro, but the difference is real and noticeable on graphics-intensive benchmark tests. You can actually see that Snapdragon is running with a higher frame – it’s not just meaningless numbers.
Here’s when you can buy a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 phone
Still, it will be up to the telephone manufacturers to use Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 to its full potential. We expect the first phone with the new platform inside will be the upcoming Xiaomi 17 series, followed by OnePlus (and Oppo), whose recent story is a guide. Last year’s OnePlus 13 was launched in China almost immediately after Snapdragon 8 elite was announced.
In the end, it is likely that Samsung will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform on one or all its Galaxy S26 devices. Samsung historically launches its flagship smartphones in January, and in the last few years it has picked up a special edition Snapdragon from Qualcomm with a slightly over -clocked primary core. It gives it an advantage of benchmark testing, although the difference is insignificant.
Qualcomm offers specifications for its smartphone platforms, but these are the theoretical capabilities of the chipset, and it will be up to the telephone manufacturers to operate Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 to its full potential.
E.g. Qualcomm says that the Gen 5 platform image processors can run up to three 48MP cameras at the same time for a triple camera recording. We still need a smartphone manufacturer to build that phone with three cameras and the software to make it work.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 may be great for games and long battery life
Players must be excited about Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Qualcomm says the new Adreno GPU inside will offer a 23% lift to the total performance and a 20% reduction in power consumption.
The Snapdragon 8 elite was particularly remarkable in my test for its effectiveness – phones with the snapdragon inside lasted much longer than phones with other chipset. I’m excited to hear that the Gen 5 platform even offers more battery life potential.
We get a deeper dive in the capacities of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 platform, as well as the new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme Laptop chipset when the Snapdragon continues. Qualcomm flew Techradar phone and portable editors to Maui to cover the event, and we’re on site to dig deep into the platform’s potential and to grill Qualcomm leaders for their takeover of what’s coming next.
