(Image credit: Qualcomm)

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.

Qualcomm's best-known Gen 5 hardware is at the top end with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 that was announced in September 2025 and powers some of the best flagship phones, before the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 was announced, bringing more affordability to top-tier phones.

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.

Key to this hardware advancement is support for 90fps gameplay, so even on cheap devices there should be smoother gaming experiences.

Qualcomm says that we'll see new devices on this hardware in 2026, but it could be in the entry-level devices that the biggest gains are made.

Qualcomm's next flagship hardware announcement is expected in September 2026, with the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 (and possibly a Pro version). This should move Snapdragon onto 2nm hardware for the first time.