The world of smartphones is abuzz with excitement as Android diehards prepare to pit their latest devices against Apple's highly anticipated iPhone 17 Pro. With OnePlus set to unveil the OnePlus 15 soon, skipping the 14 altogether, and Xiaomi introducing its innovative smartphone featuring a screen on the camera bump, the competition is heating up. Both devices will be powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip, which was announced just last week.
If you're considering upgrading to one of the latest and greatest Android phones, you might be curious about what to expect from the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip. I recently conducted tests using a dummy phone provided by Qualcomm, equipped with a stunning 6.8-inch AMOLED display, 24GB of RAM, and a 4,300mAh battery. The results were impressive, with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 delivering exceptional performance.
In Geekbench 6 CPU tests, the phone achieved a score of 3,830 in single-core and 12,224 in multi-core settings. To put this into perspective, it's over 700 points higher in single-core and an astonishing 2,400 points higher in multi-core performance than the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which features the previous generation Snapdragon 8 Elite chip. When compared to the iPhone 17 Pro with its A19 Pro silicon, both devices are neck and neck in single-core tests, but the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 outperformed Apple's latest chip in multi-core tests by 2,438 points.
When it comes to graphics performance, the competition remains fierce. The iPhone 17 Pro generally scores similarly to the iPhone 17 Pro Max in 3DMark benchmarks, except for the Solar Bay Extreme tests, which highlight ray tracing capabilities. In the Steel Nomad Light test, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 achieved a score of 3,180, translating to about 23 frames per second. In contrast, the iPhone 17 Pro managed a score of 2,331 in the same tests.
However, during testing, I encountered issues with the dummy phone overheating, leading to throttled performance. Typically, I conduct benchmarks three times to obtain an average result, but this device struggled to maintain peak performance for extended periods. In the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test, the phone scored 7,396 points, which equates to approximately 44 fps—a bit shy of Qualcomm's claimed 50 fps under similar conditions. As the device heated up, performance began to decline, indicating that phone manufacturers will need to implement better thermal control measures to optimize sustained performance.
It's important to note that this comparison isn't entirely equitable. The iPhone 17 Pro is equipped with 12GB of RAM, which is on par with the Galaxy S25 Ultra, and it’s unlikely that we’ll see a smartphone featuring 24GB of RAM anytime soon. Synthetic benchmarks do not always provide a complete picture of a device's capabilities. For example, Google’s Pixel series, powered by its own Tensor chips, often ranks lower than devices from Apple or Samsung, yet the Pixel 10 Pro remains a reliable daily driver.
Ultimately, performance becomes crucial if you aim to achieve higher frame rates in mobile gaming or intend to use your phone for mobile video editing. Qualcomm asserts that its latest chip will fully support the Advanced Professional Video codec, which is favored by professionals for high-quality video recording. However, it will be up to Samsung and other manufacturers to fully leverage these capabilities in their upcoming devices.
