5 game-changing features coming to the Android phones of the future: From AI advancements to console-quality gaming

If you just bought yourself a new phone, then we have some bad news for you — it's already old. Well, at least in terms of cutting-edge technology.

Every year, around this time, Apple doesn't just announce its new handsets, like the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Max, but rival chip supplier Qualcomm reveals its latest mobile tech, too. You might be sitting there thinking, 'why should I care about a new processor?' and we can't say we blame you — but if you are an Android phone user, it's the announcement of this chip that typically leads to some of the features you will see on phones over the next few months and into 2026.

For this year, the latest mobile chip, and supposedly the current fastest in the world (we're taking Qualcomm's word for that though we did run a couple of those geeky benchmarks to back it up), is called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. It succeeds the Snapdragon 8 Elite that you'll find powering some of the best Android phones of 2025, like the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, and we're expecting it to run the next Galaxy that will launch in early 2026, though that's unconfirmed for now.

Below are five ways the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 improves on the previous mobile chip and what all the nerdy terms and new features could mean for the next Android phones, if manufacturers like Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus and Honor choose to implement them.

1. Smarter AI assistants

Part of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor is a new, 37 per cent faster Hexagon NPU that has more AI accelerators, as well as an upgraded Sensing Hub that allows for on-device AI learning features and agentic AI. If you're wondering what all that means, you certainly won't be the only one. The agentic AI is the key feature though and the easiest way to understand it is to think of it like an agent built into your phone.

The agentic AI assistant – which could come in multiple forms from Google Gemini to Microsoft CoPilot – will be able to make recommendations and act on your behalf based on your routines, preferences and conversations. The likes of Samsung, Google and Apple are already claiming to have this in the works to some degree, but the idea of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is to offer the power necessary to make it happen.

2. More power, plus battery savings

It seems like an obvious statement but the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is going to bring more power to the devices that run on it. A stroke of luck really as it would be a pretty pointless announcement if it didn't. Qualcomm says it's no longer about what your smartphone can do but how quickly it can do it, whether that's launching apps, multi-tasking or playing games.

In terms of the numbers, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is said to be 35 per cent more power efficient than the Snapdragon 8 Elite, while offering a 16 per cent overall power saving. Effectively, it should mean better battery life for your next Android phone, as well as speedier performance.

3. Better gaming capabilities

There has been much more focus on mobile gaming over the last couple of years so it will likely come as no surprise that Qualcomm has equipped the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 to offer better gaming performance and efficiency. The next-gen Adreno GPU is claimed to deliver a 23 per cent increase in overall performance and 20 per cent reduction in power consumption.

There's also something called the Adreno High Performance Memory (HPM) that offers 18MB of dedicated memory for efficiency and visual rendering. The processor also supports features like Tile Memory Heap, designed to optimise memory usage and bandwidth while reducing power for longer game play, while Mesh Shading support is also available on this chip. Ultimately, it's good news for both the dedicated gaming phones that opt for this chip, as well as traditional Android phones, bringing mobile play ever closer to its console counterparts.

4. Better video capabilities

For those of you that like to record video using your phone, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 brings some extra tricks in this department too, though it's important to note that manufacturers like Samsung still have to choose to implement these. Still, if a phone has full access to all the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 features, you will be able to record in Advanced Professional Video (APV) Codec. This allows for the capture of high-bitrate footage with excellent quality.

There's also context-aware auto-focus, auto-exposure and auto-white balance for better processing of images overall, as well as a fully computational video pipeline that means you can extract every frame in a video. Last but not least is the ability to record professional-quality audio whatever setting you are in thanks to a feature called Snapdragon Audio Sense. It has wind-noise rejection, audio zoom and HDR audio.

5. Better connectivity

If you've ever been stuck with no reception, this feature might be one you appreciate more than all the others above put together. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will bring AI-powered mobile connectivity to phones that opt for it. Yes, AI is getting involved yet again. It really does stick its nose in everywhere.

The Qualcomm AI-Powered Data Traffic Engine will dynamically identify and prioritise data patterns to improve mobile gaming and call quality, as well as seamless transitioning between Wi-Fi and 5G. Qualcomm says the new chip will offer 30 per cent faster AI inferencing speeds for faster and more reliable mobile experiences, while the mobile system itself with Wi-Fi 7 will deliver up to 40 per cent power savings. There is also said to be 50 per cent lower gaming latency thanks to AI-enhanced Wi-Fi.

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