Early Geekbench results for the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 show almost no CPU improvement over the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4, with the older chip actually edging it out in single-core performance. GPU gains look more promising, sitting around 20%, but raw processing power appears to be largely unchanged.
Typically, when a company like Qualcomm releases a new chipset, some level of improvement over the previous generation is expected. But the latest Geekbench benchmark for the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 suggests that very little has actually changed — which is somewhat concerning.
Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 Geekbench benchmark reveals almost no changes
A listing on the Geekbench benchmark website shows an unidentified Honor device running the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5, posting a single-core score of 1,095 and a multi-core score of 3,355.
On their own, those numbers don’t say much. But compared against the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 running in the Honor Magic 8 Lite — which scored 1,112 on single-core and 3,124 on multi-core — the picture becomes clearer. The Gen 4 actually outperformed the Gen 5 in single-core testing. The Gen 5 did edge ahead on multi-core, but even that gain looks marginal at best.
As for the device behind these numbers, speculation points to the Honor X80 Pro Max, which recently launched in China with a massive 11,000mAh battery. More real-world testing will be needed to confirm whether these benchmark figures hold up.
What does this mean for users?
It’s worth keeping in mind that benchmarks rarely tell the full story. Further software tweaks and updates could still improve the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5’s performance over time.
It’s also common for newer chipset generations to prioritize things beyond raw CPU power — improved graphics, better AI handling, and greater efficiency are all typical areas of focus. A modest jump in raw performance numbers doesn’t necessarily mean the chip isn’t better in practice; it could translate into meaningfully longer battery life instead.
That said, this is speculative. Based purely on the current numbers, there’s little here to get excited about. For anyone shopping for a mid-range phone, it might be worth holding off. Once the Gen 5 officially rolls out, prices on Gen 4 devices tend to drop. Given how marginal the performance difference appears to be right now, picking up a phone with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 at a lower price could end up being the smarter buy.
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Robert Haba is the founder and editor-in-chief of Droid Tools. A lifelong gadget enthusiast with over a decade following the Android ecosystem, he built this publication to cut through the noise and give readers honest, real-world coverage of the tech they actually use.
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