We tested the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1: benchmark results

At first glance, it offers “only” a 200MHz peak in peak performance, which is pretty easy to spot. But Qualcomm cited huge improvements in efficiency, and that’s where the Plus’s strength really lies.

In any case, Asus was extremely nice and sent us a real ROG test platform packed with a brand new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 for testing. Please note that this device does not represent an actual product, it is simply a device built to experiment with the hardware.

Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 benchmark results

We ran the prototype through the same ringtone as any other device: our regular set of benchmarks. So we can compare the results with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 we have in the Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Benchmark	Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (test device)	Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (Galaxy S22 Ultra)
GFXBench Car Chase on screen	83	85
GFXBench Manhattan 3.1 on screen	139	119
Geekbench 5 Single Core	1313	1242
Geekbench 5 Multi-Core	4147	3538
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test (Highest)	2788	2551
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test (Lowest)	1928	1226

Interesting test results. We started out a bit confused by the GFXBench Car Chase test – both processors seemed to align, and in the final score the non-Plus was actually 2 frames ahead. OKAY. Once we got to the tougher Manhattan test, the benefits of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 started to become more apparent. This trend continued in the Geekbench test, where we can see the improvement translate as expected.

The most interesting results always come from 3DMark’s Wild Life Extreme stress test. That’s a tough yardstick and the goal isn’t to show us which phone can play it smoothly. No, no, it is specially designed to torture the device through 20 loops of a very heavy graphics environment.

We tested the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1: benchmark results

And the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 not only slightly outperformed the non-Plus, it also took a long time to throttle (all the way to loop 16).

Now, this test isn’t entirely fair – the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is being put in a retail Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra here, and it’s clear that Samsung has tuned its phones to stay cool and save battery. While the test platform with the 8+ Gen 1 is made to push the processor. However, the test does show us what is possible with the new chip.

Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 in real life

Of course, you’re probably wondering how these benchmarks translate to, you know… actually using the device. Now I couldn’t resist the urge to put the new Apex Legends Mobile game on this test device. And yes, it was quite impressive.

With the game settings, you can only go as high as ExtremeHD settings if you want 60 FPS. I turned this on, then enabled anti-aliasing and bloom and just jumped in. I’d say the performance was extremely smooth – the only hiccups happened when the game was loading in textures while I was jumping on the map or while zooming in at a wide range – I’d say those have to do with game optimization. Apex Mobile is still quite fresh.

And yes, the phone got warm, although not really hot. But if I wanted to push the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 to its limits on a daily basis, I would look for a device with a cooling accessory or a very well-developed internal cooling system.

As for battery life, I was really impressed with how well it held up, both while torturing benchmarks and making my way through the battle arena.