Snapdragon 8 Elite real-world battery assessments: Large effectivity beneficial properties!

Qualcomm’s gross sales pitch for the Snapdragon 8 Elite is efficiency, efficiency, efficiency. Whether or not you’re enjoying video games, operating the most recent AI duties, or just utilizing the brand new Oryon CPU to flick by means of your favourite apps, the most recent Snapdragon guarantees to be quick. In all probability quicker than you actually need, in actual fact.

Nonetheless, tucked away in Qualcomm’s presentation was point out of as much as 45% higher vitality effectivity for its new customized CPU setup, thanks partly to TSMC’s innovative 3nm manufacturing course of. That’s the potential so as to add vital hours of screen-on time to sure situations. To see if these claims have any benefit, I grabbed the brand new ASUS ROG Cellphone 9 Professional, which is similar to final yr’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-packing ROG Cellphone 8, and ran the telephones by means of a sequence of battery assessments. The outcomes actually lend weight to Qualcomm’s lofty claims, albeit with a couple of caveats.

Snapdragon 8 Elite battery check

Whereas the brand new ROG telephone could also be one of many first Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones, the {hardware} similarities to its predecessor make it a superb telephone for comparability. Its show specs are nearly unchanged, the digital camera capabilities are very comparable, and its battery is barely 7% bigger, which is straightforward to account for. If there are vital battery life enhancements to be discovered, it’s going to be all the way down to the processor. Right here’s what I discovered.

We deal with these figures as a tough ballpark (each consumer is totally different, in spite of everything), however battery life is improved in all of our assessments, and two key issues actually stand out. First, the digital camera and video seize assessments rating a comparatively small enchancment of 10% and 6%, respectively. Their enhancements are virtually sure because of the larger battery, so the brand new chip breaks roughly even right here. Working digital camera {hardware} persistently is a really large client of battery energy, making any CPU effectivity beneficial properties much less vital.

Nonetheless, flick to situations the place the CPU is an even bigger consider energy consumption, and the battery life enhancements bounce up. Internet looking is the largest winner, boasting a whopping 46% enchancment that takes the telephone simply shy of 15 hours of fixed use. 4K playback and Zoom conferences additionally see a considerable 30% increase every, presumably a bit decrease than the net check as a result of they depend on different {hardware} blocks, just like the video decoder, as properly. Nonetheless, these use instances profit from TSMC’s 3nm node, and the shortage of little cores clearly doesn’t damage Qualcomm’s CPU design for these kinds of duties.

Subtracting out the bigger battery, Qualcomm’s 45% effectivity increase declare is somewhat larger than the outcomes I’ve seen, so it’s actually a distinct segment best-case state of affairs. I calculate that the Snapdragon 8 Elite accounted for a roughly 18% common increase to battery life throughout these 5 assessments, peaking at 39% within the internet check. That is nonetheless a big enchancment that may end in a number of hours extra screen-on time for real-world use instances.

All of us yearn for longer battery life and have all too typically turned to larger battery capacities to make it by means of a day of heavy use. Though the ROG examined right here has an enormous battery as properly, it’s clearly now greater than most will want. A vastly extra environment friendly processor adjustments that dynamic; we will have distinctive battery life with out hulking nice large batteries (and telephones). This may simply be one of many largest perks of upgrading to a brand new Snapdraogn 8 Elite telephone, just like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S25, within the subsequent few months.

In fact, we shouldn’t dismiss the efficiency potential of the Snapdragon 8 Elite both. It clearly benchmarks very properly, offering a noticeable uplift over the earlier era. Nonetheless, there are actually diminishing returns for real-world efficiency, each by way of sometimes light-weight apps like internet looking and even gaming, the place hitting a gradual 60fps seldom requires the most recent cell GPU. Shifting to a brand new processor received’t essentially make your telephone really feel all that clearly snappier anymore, however the Snapdragon 8 Elite will make the battery final an entire lot longer.

With all of this mentioned, I’m not anticipating each Snapdragon 8 Elite telephone to supply fairly the identical effectivity advantages I’ve seen right here. {Hardware} and software program optimations play their very own half, and ASUS’ balanced efficiency profile actually doesn’t run the processor at full tilt. Nonetheless, I’m greater than cautiously optimistic that next-gen smartphones will understand vital battery life enhancements due to the Snapdragon 8 Elite.