As previously reported, this year's Snapdragon Summit introduced two new premium flagship-class mobile chipsets. The first one is the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, but how does the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 differ? According to Qualcomm, not as much as you'd think.
Notable numbers, but little difference
According to Android Authority, Qualcomm Group GM said that what the company did was "bifurcating the premium tier into two". In other words, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 are both premium chipsets. They have the same Oryon CPU and Adreno GPU, albeit with some numerical differences in specs.
For instance, the 8 Elite Gen 5 has two 4.6GHz prime CPU cores. However, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 has one 3.8GHz prime core. Moreover, the former has its 8 CPU cores split into two prime cores and six 3.62GHz performance cores. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 sports a 1+7 configuration instead, with its performance cores clocking at 3.32GHz.
The "Apple strategy"
As you can tell, this allows the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 to outperform the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5. However, the latter is still a premium flagship chipset capable of delivering powerful CPU and GPU performance to mobile devices. It's the same strategy Apple is running this year for its iPhone 17 series, which features the A19 and A19 Pro chipsets.
Of course, this isn't the first time companies copied Apple's strategies. Chipset binning isn't a new concept in the semiconductor industry, so Qualcomm's case isn't unique. But is this just an excuse for Qualcomm to sell a more expensive version of its top-of-the-line chipset? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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