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Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, Bringing Near‑Flagship Power to More Phones

OnePlus claims co-development with a December 17 debut in the 15R.

Overview

  • The new platform is a lower‑clocked companion to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, sharing TSMC’s 3 nm N3P process and Oryon CPU architecture but with reduced peak frequencies.
  • Qualcomm cites gains over Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 of 36% for CPU, 11% for GPU and 46% for AI performance, alongside improved power efficiency, though independent testing is pending.
  • A dedicated Sensing Hub enables always‑ready, context‑aware on‑device AI, paired with the Hexagon NPU for multimodal processing and new assistant behaviors.
  • Imaging and gaming features include a Spectra Triple AI ISP with claimed 4x dynamic range, Night Vision 3.0, real‑time tone adjustments, 165 fps support, Mesh Shading and the Adreno 840 with Frame Motion Engine.
  • Connectivity is anchored by the Snapdragon X80 5G Modem‑RF with Wi‑Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and UWB, and early adopters named by Qualcomm include OnePlus, Vivo, Motorola and iQOO.