Qualcomm Expands Flagship Phone Chip Series
Nov 26, 2025, 1:30 AM by Rich Brome @rbrome.bsky.social
Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip for high-end phones. Although intended for flagship-level phones, it sits just below the already-announced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the lineup. It keeps many high-end features from the 8 Elite Gen 5, including dual prime CPU cores, 20-bit triple ISP (for camera processing), and Bluetooth Channel Sounding. However the top CPU speed drops from 4.6 GHz to 3.8 GHz, the maximum RAM speed drops from 5,300 MHz to 4,800 MHz, and it lacks some high-end graphics features like Tile Memory Heap and Adreno High Performance Memory (HPM). Since the last non-Elite 8-series chip was the 8 Gen 3 from two years ago, Qualcomm compares performance to that chip: 46% improved NPU (AI) performance, 36% improved CPU (general compute) performance, and 11% improved GPU (graphics) performance. Read on for a table highlighting the differences between recent 8-series chips. Qualcomm says OnePlus and other manufacturers will announce phones using the new chip in the coming weeks. OnePlus is expected to announce specs of the OnePlus 15R soon, so that phone may use this chip.
source: Qualcomm
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Snapdragon 8 Elite (Gen 4) | Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CPU cores | Kryo (Arm Cortex-X4) up to 3.4 GHz 1 prime core |
Qualcomm Oryon up to 4.47 GHz 1 prime core |
Qualcomm Oryon up to 3.8 GHz 2 prime cores |
Qualcomm Oryon up to 4.6 GHz 2 prime cores |
| Graphics Features | Adreno High Performance Memory (HPM), Tile Memory Heap |
|||
| triple ISP | 18-bit | 18-bit | 20-bit | 20-bit |
| Storage | UFS 4.0 | UFS 4.0 | UFS 4.0 | UFS 4.1 |
| Max. RAM speed | 4,800 MHz | 5,300 Mhz | 4,800 MHz | 5,300 Mhz |
| Cellular modem | X75 | X80 | X80 | X85 |
| FastConnect local radio | 7800 | 7900 | 7900 | 7900 |
| Bluetooth | 5.4 | 6.0 | 6.0 Channel Sounding |
6.0 Channel Sounding |
| integrated UWB | no | yes | yes | yes |
| Manuf. process | 4nm | 3nm | 3nm | 3nm |
About the author, Rich Brome:Editor in Chief Rich became fascinated with cell phones in 1999, creating mobile web sites for phones with tiny black-and-white displays and obsessing over new phone models. Realizing a need for better info about phones, he started Phone Scoop in 2001, and has been helming the site ever since. Rich has spent two decades researching and covering every detail of the phone industry, traveling the world to tour factories, interview CEOs, and get every last spec and photo Phone Scoop readers have come to expect. As an industry veteran, Rich is a respected voice on phone technology of the past, present, and future.
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