This yr’s crop of flagship Android telephones represents one thing of a victory lap for Qualcomm. Half a decade in the past, Apple efficiently scaled its A-series cellphone chips as much as the laptop computer and desktop stage. Now, Qualcomm is experiencing an identical leap in reverse. It designed laptop computer and desktop-class Snapdragon X Elite chips and introduced their staple customized Oryon cores to the cellular system-on-a-chip (SoC) stage with the Snapdragon 8 Elite platform.
As my colleague Harish Jonnalagadda lately confirmed in benchmark testing, the Snapdragon 8 Elite crushes what MediaTek and Google comparatively provide. Nonetheless, Samsung and Qualcomm threw us a curveball after they co-designed the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor. It is a customized chip primarily based on the Snapdragon 8 Elite platform however tailor-made to the Samsung Galaxy S25 sequence of smartphones.
That begs the query: how a lot better is the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip than the common model? Of their announcement, the 2 firms touted the customized chip’s excellence in picture processing, gaming, powering Galaxy AI options, and connectivity. Is that sufficient to make you suppose twice about shopping for a flagship with a typical Snapdragon 8 Elite chip?
To seek out out, the group at Android Central examined a slew of Snapdragon 8 Elite–powered units towards the Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25 Extremely. For our Snapdragon 8 Elite lineup, we examined the Honor Magic 7 Professional, iQOO 13, RedMagic 10 Professional, and Asus ROG Cellphone 9 Professional. We then stacked that up towards the benchmark scores of the Galaxy S25 Extremely from Andrew Myrick’s evaluation and the Galaxy S25’s scores from my evaluation.
To say that the outcomes have been shocking could be an understatement. Whereas the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip is lots highly effective, it not often beats different high Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones.
Benchmark | Samsung Galaxy S25 Extremely (Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy) | Samsung Galaxy S25 (Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy) | Honor Magic 7 Professional (Snapdragon 8 Elite) | iQOO 13 (Snapdragon 8 Elite) | RedMagic 10 Professional (Snapdragon 8 Elite) | ASUS ROG Cellphone 9 Professional (Snapdragon 8 Elite) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
PCMark Work 3.0 (Total) | 20129 | 19816 | 21008 | 16043 | 25320 | 25733 |
PCMark Work 3.0 (Internet Shopping) | 20601 | 20790 | 24889 | 16307 | 28463 | 25064 |
PCMark Work 3.0 (Video Modifying) | 8617 | 8664 | 8072 | 6899 | 9115 | 9311 |
PCMark Work 3.0 (Writing) | 28484 | 28652 | 27504 | 20445 | 36806 | 34828 |
PCMark Work 3.0 (Picture Modifying) | 32689 | 33847 | 40642 | 39044 | 64891 | 56377 |
Geekbench 6 (single-core) | 3001 | 3025 | 2965 | 2954 | 3136 | 3137 |
Geekbench 6 (multi-core) | 9381 | 9640 | 6342 | 6650 | 9842 | 9936 |
Geekbench 6 (Quantized rating) | 4026 | 4503 | 2115 | 3915 | 3162 | 5479 |
3DMark Wild Life Excessive | 4855 | 5307 | 6391 | 4514 | 5817 | 5935 |
3DMark Wild Life Excessive (FPS) | 29.08 | 31.78 | 38.27 | 27.025 | 34.84 | 35.54 |
3DMark Photo voltaic Bay (rating) | 8751 | 9724 | 11298 | 7287 | 9796 | 10038 |
3DMark Photo voltaic Bay (FPS) | 33.28 | 36.97 | 42.96 | 27.695 | 37.25 | 38.17 |
We all know a bit concerning the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chip. For starters, it is overclocked barely increased than the base Snapdragon 8 Elite chip — the SoC can hit 4.47 GHz in comparison with 4.32 GHz. Nonetheless, Qualcomm and Samsung have not shared a lot else concerning the chip’s under-the-hood tweaks.
After operating our full slate of benchmark exams, together with PCMark, 3DMark, Geekbench 6, and Geekbench AI, it is clear that the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy doesn’t win typically towards Snapdragon 8 Elite–powered units. Three out of 4 of Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones — the Honor Magic 7 Professional, RedMagic 10 Professional, and ROG Cellphone 9 Professional — posted increased PCMark general scores than each Galaxy S25 units. The latter two telephones crushed the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy units by a margin of almost 5,000 factors.
That normal theme is constant all through our slate of benchmarks and stress testing. Except for the iQOO 13, the opposite three Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones edge out the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy–powered fashions nearly each time. The Galaxy S25 Extremely, a $1,299 Samsung flagship, did not are available first place in a single check. For some motive, the bottom Galaxy S25 carried out higher, nevertheless it nonetheless did not stack up towards the most effective Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones.
The takeaway right here should not be that the Galaxy S25 is best than the Galaxy S25 Extremely, or that the Asus ROG Cellphone 9 Professional is best than the Honor Magic 7 Professional. As a substitute, these benchmarking outcomes sign that how a producer chooses to run its processor of alternative issues far more than whether or not it is the common Snapdragon 8 Elite chip or the “for Galaxy” variant.
There is no higher proof of this than the iQOO 13, which has the identical chip because the ROG Cellphone 9 Professional however performs almost 10,000 factors decrease in sure benchmark exams. The issue right here is not Snapdragon 8 Elite, it is that iQOO is artificially limiting the chip’s efficiency. There could possibly be a lot of causes for that, together with battery life, TDP, or thermal throttling considerations.
It is doubtless that Samsung is doing one thing comparable with the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy processor within the Galaxy S25 sequence. It might be overclocked and customised for Galaxy telephones, however the outcomes communicate for themselves: this chip is not reaching its full potential. It is unattainable to know why Samsung went this route for certain, although we observed slight efficiency dips because of thermal throttling throughout graphics stress exams on each the Galaxy S25 and the Galaxy S25 Extremely.
Actually, these outcomes show that you just needn’t decide a smartphone for its processor in 2025. Benchmarks apart, all of the telephones examined are succesful units which have carried out excellently in day by day use. Even units not listed right here, just like the Google Pixel 9 sequence, are greater than succesful.
Whereas it is clear that Samsung is doing spectacular issues with on-device AI and the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy platform, it is not materially higher than all the opposite Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones.
