Qualcomm debuts Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for phones and X2 Elite PCs

Qualcomm used its Snapdragon Summit in Maui this week to unveil new flagship processors across phones and laptops, rolling out the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Android handsets and a pair of second generation Snapdragon X2 Elite chips for Windows PCs. The company said the announcements mark a major performance and on device AI leap for both mobile and ARM based laptops, with commercial devices expected to arrive beginning later this year for phones and in the first half of 2026 for laptops.

Qualcomm said the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is built on a 3 nanometer process and features a third generation Oryon CPU, delivering two Prime cores up to 4.6 GHz plus six Performance cores. The company claimed the chip is about 20 percent faster than the prior generation while using roughly 35 percent less power. Qualcomm also highlighted a next generation Adreno GPU with a 23 percent uplift in graphics performance and about 20 percent lower power consumption, an upgraded Hexagon neural processing unit that it said is 37 percent faster, and a suite of image, video and audio advances including support for near lossless Advanced Professional Video capture and an expanded Spectra ISP pipeline...