Qualcomm’s Non-Elite Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Is Now Official

Forget flagship killers, Qualcomm just dropped the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 – a chip so powerful, it’s practically a sidekick to therealsuperhero, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Think of it as the incredibly skilled protege, ready to dominate, but still acknowledging the master.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is here, and it is inferior to the ‘Elite’ model

The inevitable has arrived: the non-Elite edition is here. While it echoes the features of its ‘Elite’ sibling, don’t expect a performance match. Yet, specs alone paint a tantalizing picture.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 promises to leave last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the dust. Early benchmarks suggest a staggering 36% leap in CPU performance and an 11% boost for graphics. But the real kicker? Qualcomm claims a 13% reduction in overall power consumption, meaning more performance with less battery drain.

It has slower clock speeds than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 mirrors the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5’s innovative Oryon CPU architecture, but throttles the speed. Imagine a finely tuned engine, potent with two prime cores and a squadron of six performance cores, ready to unleash a torrent of power, yet deliberately held in check.

Cranking up the heat, those prime cores blaze at a steady 3.8GHz. That’s a noticeable step up from the Elite’s split personality – a tamer 3.62GHz on one side and a scorching 4.6GHz on the other. However, don’t expect a total inferno; the performance cores hit their limit at 3.32GHz.

Beyond the expected, the Snapdragon X80 modem takes the stage – though it’s a touch less speedy than its counterparts. On the wireless front, things remain comfortingly familiar. Wi-Fi 7 connectivity is present and accounted for, as is the latest Bluetooth 6 standard. Ultra-Wideband (UWB) also joins the party, rounding out the connectivity suite.

Sadly, the newest UFS 4.1 storage standard is off the table. While the Adreno GPU and Hexagon AI NPU are present, they’re a step behind the powerhouse found in the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. This chip sports the Adreno 840 GPU, armed with the impressive Frame Motion Engine 3.0, just like its "Elite" sibling. However, a key component is missing: Adreno High-Performance Memory (HPM) is absent.

OnePlus is expected to be the first company to use it

Beyond the familiar specs echoing the ‘Elite,’ a power shift is brewing. All eyes are on OnePlus, poised to be the trailblazer, unleashing the new chip’s fury in the anticipated Ace 6T/15R. Hot on their heels, Motorola and Vivo are gearing up to join the fray, promising a surge of next-gen devices.

The wait is almost over! Qualcomm has confirmed: Snapdragon 8 Gen 5-powered devices are landing soon. Keep your eyes peeled – the future is arriving in weeks.

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