Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 smartphones: OnePlus 15, Vivo X300 Series and more

Officially, Qualcomm has launched its new flagship mobile processor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which has a significant performance and efficiency increase versus its predecessor. At the Snapdragon Summit 2025, Qualcomm officially unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, making it the fastest and the most powerful mobile chipset in the world.Although this chipset has been released, smartphones using this processor should become available in other parts of the world later in 2025 and early 2026.Xiaomi 17 series has been confirmed as the first to display the chip with the international rollouts expected soon after the first release within China. It is a progressive chip which is supposed to provide the most innovative mobile experience, featuring the fastest mobile high-speed computer, with advanced AI and graphics which will become a new standard in the mobile phone industry. Such flagship phones as Realme GT 8 Pro, Xiaomi 17 Series, Oneplus 15, iQOO 15 and vivo X300 Series are just a few on the list that will include the latest processor. The slightest improvements in the phones also make them efficient and last longer.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: Specifications and performance 

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is manufactured based on the high 3nm process at TSMC, including the third-generation of the Oryon CPU in an octa-core design, two high-performance cores at 4.6GHz, and six performance cores at 3.62GHz. Qualcomm says that the CPU performance has been improved by 20 percent and the CPU power efficiency has also been improved by 35 percent over its previous product which has led to rapidness in launching apps, easier multitasking and increased battery life.

Gamers also enjoy the improved Adreno GPU which serves as a 23 percent performance improvement, 20 percent power efficiency, and full Unreal Engine 5 compatibility, ray tracing, and other features such as Mesh Shading and Tile Memory Heap to play high-quality games consoles.

The chipset also goes further to improve AI processing with an accelerated Hexagon NPU by 37 percent and hardware-based agentic AI assistants, allowing smarter and responsive user interaction without sacrificing privacy.

Pros of Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

• CPU Performance: The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 offers a decent CPU performance of about 20 per cent over its predecessor that translates to faster processing speed, multitasking, and responsiveness to the demanding applications.

• GPU Performance: Graphics performance increases up to 23 percent and allows more realistic animations, more frames per second, and new technologies such as ray tracing, which increases the visual quality of games and graphics-intensive programs.

• AI Improvements: Neural Processing Unit (NPU) has a 37 percent improvement, which enables smarter and efficient real-time AI calculations of features like computational photography, voice assistant, and on-device machine learning.

• Power Efficiency: Qualcomm has reported power efficiency 35 percent higher. This is a major leap in change resulting in longer battery life even when it is heavily used, compromising sustainability with high performance.

• Gaming: The chipset has combined system and graphics level optimisations that enable it to allow extended high-fidelity gaming times with no throttling or overheating and provide a smoother gameplay experience and the latest graphical effects.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 powered phones to watch out for!

Look out for these phones with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip.

Realme GT 8 Pro

The future device of Realme, the GT 8 Pro is already stirred with an impressive AnTuTu score of over 4 million, demonstrating the raw power of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Users will have access to the incredibly fast launch of apps, flawless multi-tasking, and high-quality gaming with 23% faster graphics and 35% more efficient processor design. The thermal control and AI processing on the chipset will also help to make the performance of the chipset easier when doing the intensive tasks.

Xiaomi 17 Series 

Already launched in China, these flagships integrate the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and will come to global markets soon. The Xiaomi 17 line, including the Xiaomi 17, the Xiaomi 17 Pro and the Xiaomi 17 Pro Max, boasts the honor of being the first flagship line to be introduced running the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. This is the line that includes the Leica camera partnerships that provide the best photography with high image processing in addition to the advanced AI processing capabilities of the chipset. The series also has new dual AMOLED screens, a primary high-resolution screen and a secondary screen on the back, which enables users to respond to notifications and take quality selfies easily. The improvements in performance include: faster CPU by 20 percent, 23 percent higher in the Graphics card, and a wider use of more power that could last longer in battery run-off.

OnePlus 15

OnePlus has confirmed the OnePlus 15 will feature the new processor, initially launching in China with a focus on high-performance gaming. OnePlus makes the claim that the OnePlus 15 will be powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and emphasises a lot on gaming performance as a sub-brand under the message Windspeed Gaming Core. It does guarantee high frame rates, and ray tracing, and graphics bandwidth that will be attractive to competitive mobile gamers. The advanced CPU and graphics card on the chipset will provide the gameplay and user-friendly experience, and the advanced AI will help in providing real-time optimisation and more intelligent use of resources in the case of an active gaming session.

iQOO 15 

Targeted at gamers and heavy users, the iQOO 15 is set to debut with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, featuring advanced gaming optimisations. The iQOO 15 is aimed at gamers and power users with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 plus iQOO Q3 gaming chip that supports super-resolution graphics, super-frame rendering, and ray tracing that is hardware accelerated. This combination brings the graphics of mobile gaming to the new level of richer details and a more fluid action. The energy gain of Qualcomm also enables a long time on high performance gaming with low battery depletion and high-performance cooling solutions to maintain peak speeds when under load.

Vivo X300 Series

Vivo plans to switch from MediaTek to Qualcomm’s new flagship chipset, promising a major upgrade in performance. The X300 series of Vivo is a strategic upgrade to the MediaTek Dimensity chips to flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. The change has a significant increase in CPU raw speed of approximately 20 percent, graphics performance of up to 23 percent, and AI task efficiency, which allows improved camera capabilities, smoother multi-tasking, and high-quality multimedia experiences. Another benefit of the new chip is to achieve better thermal management and better battery life, which is important to flagship users who require the best performance and reliability.

As the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 models are launched, Qualcomm is enhancing its position in providing next generation flagship processors that combine powerful computing, breathtaking graphics and intelligent AI. The new generation of smartphones produced by different brands are expected to take advantage of the capabilities of this chip to redesign what consumers can expect in 2025 in terms of speed, efficiency and impeccable experiences.

Both consumers and tech enthusiasts will be eager to enjoy a year of exciting device releases that will be brought by the most developed mobile platform ever created by Qualcomm.

Disclaimer: The information regarding the gadgets/devices listed in the table and article has been sourced from various secondary sources. For detailed product specifications, please refer to the brand sources.