Qualcomm’s recent best-performing chipset was Snapdragon 8 Elite 4, which dominated the iPhone 16 Series A18 chipset. Now the latest leaks suggest Qualcomm is underway working on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, supposed to dominate the upcoming Apple A19 Bionic chipset.
Popular tipster `Digital Chat Station` has leaked that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, Model Number SM8850, is under development with 2 main cores with a 4.61 GHz clock speed and 6 secondary cores with a 3.63 GHz frequency, which can dominate any chipset’s performance right now.
For graphics and rendering, the device features an Adreno 840 GPU running at 1.2 GHz.
On the other hand, according to past rumors, Samsung was planning to launch its next phone with a 4.74 GHz version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
Upcoming Phone with Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 SoC
Xiaomi is highly expected to be the first brand to use the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor. In addition, other brands such as Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, and Realme are also expected to join. The tipster also says the AnTuTu Benchmark reaches 4 million points.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Launch Date
The Snapdragon 8 Elite 5G is expected to be introduced at the Snapdragon Summit starting on 23rd September 2025. On the summit, they will announce the new chip and smartphone brand name.
Just before the summit, Apple is set to launch the new iPhone 17 series on September 9, 2025, introducing a new member, the iPhone 17 Air, powered by Apple’s next-generation A19 Bionic chip.
Read: Snapdragon 4 Gen 2 vs Snapdragon 695: Which is the best mobile chipset?
Lastly, we talked about Apple’s A18 Bionic Chipset and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4; both are excellent chipsets on different OSs. In terms of performance, both are almost similar. That makes sense of comparing Apple’s upcoming A19 Bionic vs. the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Processor.
Here is the quick comparison between Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 4 vs Apple A18 Bionic—
| Specification | Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (Elite) | Apple A18 (Bionic 18) |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing Process | 3 nm (TSMC N3E) | 3 nm (TSMC N3E) |
| CPU Cores | 8-core: 2× Oryon @ 4.32 GHz + 6× Oryon @ 3.53 GHz | 6-core: 2× performance @ 4.05 GHz + 4× efficiency @ 2.42 GHz |
| CPU Performance | Multi-core ~7% faster; floating-point ~48% faster | Strong single-core, slightly lower multi-core |
| GPU | Adreno 830, ~1100 MHz, 1536 shaders, ~3379 GFLOPS | 6-core Apple GPU, ~1490 MHz, ~2289 GFLOPS |
| AnTuTu Score | ~2.73 million | ~1.85 million |
| Geekbench 6 | Single-core ~3155, Multi-core ~9723 | Single-core ~3582, Multi-core ~9089 |
| Memory (RAM) | LPDDR5X @ 5300 MHz, ~84.8 GB/s | LPDDR5X @ 3750 MHz, ~60 GB/s |
| AI / NPU | Hexagon NPU, multimodal Gen-AI support | 16-core Neural Engine, up to 35 TOPS |
| Connectivity | Snapdragon X80 modem, 5G (10 Gbps DL / 3.5 Gbps UL), Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0, UWB | Similar modem, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, UWB |
| Media Capabilities | Spectra ISP, up to 320 MP, 8K @ 60 fps | Up to 48 MP, 4K @ 120 fps |
Final Thoughts
For the Android side, the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will be dominant over any other smartphone in terms of multitasking performance. Maybe it produces some hot topics between Apple’s A19 bionic chipset because both are going to be introduced in the same month on different dates. What is your opinion on that? tell me in the comment section—
