Affordable Android phones just got a huge gaming boost – other flagship-level upgrades too

Source Domain: www.t3.com

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Qualcomm has announced hardware updates for its lower tier chips.

This will boost the performance for the most affordable Android phones, including a significant graphics boost.

Qualcomm has announced the latest Gen 5 updates to some of its lower tier hardware, in the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 5. This new 2026 hardware will power more affordable devices – with some big performance gains.

Now is the time for more affordable phones to get in on the action – with Honor, Oppo, Realme and Redmi all confirmed to be launching devices in 2026 using this hardware.

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Starting with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 5, Qualcomm says that this offers 20% faster app launching and an 18% reduction in stutter experienced on the screen compared to the previous version of this hardware.

It’s designed to bring power into the mid-range, found in phones such as the Honor Magic 8 Lite. This is a phone that offers great performance for the price, with core hardware that’s a little slower than flagship, but still good for daily use. One advantage of Snapdragon 6 Gen 5 is that it bundles in WiFi 7 for the latest connectivity.

The Snapdragon 4 Gen 5 is focused more on entry-level devices, with Oppo, Realme and Redmi all expected to release the first devices on this new platform.

Qualcomm says that it brings 43% faster app launches, which should add a little more expedience to phones on this lower tier hardware. There’s also a claimed 77% GPU improvement which sounds significant and should boost the experience of entry-level devices considerably.

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