Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
The Snapdragon 8 series is Qualcomm’s top-tier of smartphone processors. These chips offer a ton of performance, blazing-fast connectivity, cutting-edge camera features, and loads of AI features. This family grew in a big way in 2026, though. And that’s before we talk about the brand new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series.
We already saw the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 in late 2025, but then we got the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5V. So, which one is best? Well, we’ve now tested phones with all of these Gen 5 chips. And we have an answer. For these tests, we used the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, POCO F9 Ultra, POCO F9 Pro, and the OnePlus 15R.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, seen in the POCO F9 Ultra, is the best Snapdragon chip that most Android OEMs can buy. Expect an octa-core 4.6GHz Oryon CPU and a powerful Adreno GPU with three compute slices. However, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, used in the Galaxy S26 Ultra, is effectively an overclocked version for Samsung devices. Its CPU reaches an impressive peak speed of 4.74GHz. Unfortunately, this chipset is typically restricted to Samsung. In saying so, Qualcomm tends to release small quantities of its overclocked chips to other OEMs in the second half of each year under the “Leading Version” moniker.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5V used in the POCO F9 Pro is the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 chip, and it’s essentially a downgraded version of the 8 Elite Gen 5. The GPU, in particular, has only two compute slices, suggesting reduced peak performance. Otherwise, it still has the same 4.6GHz CPU and 3nm TSMC design as the full-fledged Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
At the bottom of the totem pole is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, seen in the OnePlus 15R. Notice the missing “Elite” branding? It uses a CPU similar to the Elite chip but reaches a top speed of 3.8 GHz. Furthermore, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 has an Adreno GPU with two slices. It also lacks the high-performance memory that’s attached to the 8 Elite Gen 5 GPU. This suggests a significant graphical disadvantage on paper.
It’s no surprise to see the Galaxy S26 Ultra come out on top in both single- and multi-core CPU performance in our GeekBench 6 test. After all, the Ultra phone is equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chipset. This processor has Prime CPU cores that are ~140MHz faster than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5V cores. It’s a narrow win in the single-core test, but the gap widens in the multi-core benchmark as Samsung can call on two higher-clocked cores.
Unsurprisingly, the OnePlus 15R came dead last in both legs of our GeekBench 6 test. This is at least partially due to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5’s slower clock speeds across the board.
What is perhaps unexpected is that the POCO F9 Pro and its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5V ranked a distant third. Qualcomm previously noted that this processor had the same CPU clock speed and core count as the full-blown 8 Elite Gen 5. It therefore stands to reason that the chipset either has a smaller cache or POCO went with very conservative software tuning on the Pro compared to the Ultra.
GPU stress tests aren’t necessarily indicative of real-world performance. Furthermore, smartphones often vary greatly in their default power profiles and hardware cooling measures. Nevertheless, these benchmarks can still tell us which phones and chips might struggle under sustained load.
The Wild Life Stress Test and Wild Life Extreme Stress Test yield similar results upon close inspection. The POCO F9 Pro achieves the best stability of the lot at ~76-77% across both tests. Meanwhile, the POCO F9 Ultra offered 69-70% stability, and the Galaxy S26 Ultra maintained just 53-54% stability. The POCO F9 Pro’s performance means that it started out behind the Galaxy S26 Ultra in both tests, but finished ahead of it by the end. The OnePlus 15R was last in both stress tests, but maintained 64-65% stability. This means that while the Samsung phone finished higher in both tests, the OnePlus device lost less performance over time.
We see a major shake-up in device temperatures, though. The POCO F9 Ultra achieved the highest temperatures across both tests. More specifically, you’re looking at average temperatures of 44-45 degrees Celsius and peak temperatures of 52 degrees Celsius. Xiaomi’s Pro phone wasn’t much better, with an average temperature of 43 degrees Celsius and a peak temperature of 50 degrees Celsius in both tests. That’s not great for your comfort or for either phone’s battery.
The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra was clearly cooler than the POCO phones. It achieved an average temperature of 41 degrees Celsius across both tests and a peak of 44 degrees Celsius. In other words, the Samsung phone’s peak temperatures are in line with the POCO F9 Ultra’s average temperature. That’s an interesting result and suggests that Samsung is a little more willing to drop performance in the name of lower temperatures.
The big winner in this regard was the OnePlus 15R, which had average temperatures of 34-35 degrees Celsius and a peak temperature of 41 degrees Celsius. Yep, this phone’s peak temperature is actually lower than the POCO duo’s average temperature. The sustained performance is still some way off the POCO phones, but at least the device won’t be uncomfortable to hold during long gaming sessions.
We have to reiterate that this isn’t a definitive verdict regarding each chip’s performance. Hardware cooling can play a major role in how a chip performs. Even software tuning can vary wildly from one OEM to another. So it’s entirely possible that a different set of phones running these same chips could see different results. However, there are some conclusions we can draw from our testing.
Based purely on CPU performance, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy is the best Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 series chip of the lot. By contrast, the OnePlus 15R and its non-Elite chip are dead-last. All of these chips have powerful CPUs that should keep your phone running smoothly, though. However, the Galaxy chip’s increased performance could make a minor difference for tasks like video editing, bleeding-edge emulation, or running unoptimized AI models.
It’s much harder to pick a winner when looking at the GPU benchmarks. POCO’s phones clearly do the best job of maintaining performance over time, but these are also the hottest devices of the lot. Samsung’s phone loses the most performance and even finishes behind the POCO F9 Pro (with its downgraded GPU), but it’s a little cooler than Xiaomi’s devices.
Then there’s the OnePlus 15R. It’s in third place for stability and doesn’t threaten any of these phones’ overall performance. However, it’s far and away the coolest phone of the lot while still bringing plenty of performance compared to upper-mid-range devices. This makes it the ideal pick in my book for comfortably playing blockbuster Android games or mid-tier emulation (e.g., PS2 and Nintendo Switch).
Thank you for being part of our community. Read our Comment Policy before posting.
