Weekly poll: do flagship chipsets still matter?

12 November 2023
The latest silicon brings higher performance and advanced features for image processing, game graphics and AI. But do you really need all that?

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  • ?
  • Anonymous
  • 0cB
  • 14 Nov 2023

Anonymous, 14 Nov 2023With Android even flagship chips stutter and lag so yes you... moreEven midrange Samsungs rarely lag.

    • ?
    • Anonymous
    • yVI
    • 14 Nov 2023

    With Android even flagship chips stutter and lag so yes you do need the latest.

      • ?
      • Anonymous
      • yVI
      • 14 Nov 2023

      Anonymous, 14 Nov 2023If it's CRAP-o-LED don't buy it! Always choose I... moreLCD is dead and has been for years on mobile devices. As for Xiaomi good luck with their ad/spyware ridden software and that they usually fall apart in less than a year.

        • S
        • Sosuke Aizen
        • U{B
        • 14 Nov 2023

        Potato, 13 Nov 2023Depends on the midranger. If it's the latest midrange ... moreShould I play genshin on my sd 860 tablet?

          • ?
          • Anonymous
          • tDI
          • 14 Nov 2023

          alcatraz, 14 Nov 2023If you're going to buy an older flagship make sure it&... morehey dont forget to mention sd7gen1 (not sd7gen1+) as well
          afaik it was manufactured by samsung and suffer badly as sd 888/sd8gen1

            If you're going to buy an older flagship make sure it's a TSMC fabbed one. That means stay away from sd888, sd8g1.

            It's just a hunch that power inefficient older flagships age a lot worse, and you'll want to upgrade sooner. Stick to sd8g2, sd8g1plus, sd7g2plus, sd870, sd865.

              • ?
              • Anonymous
              • gDU
              • 14 Nov 2023

              If it's CRAP-o-LED don't buy it!
              Always choose IPS display technology and Xiaomi if you can!
              You won't regret it!

                • O
                • Otman
                • pwm
                • 14 Nov 2023

                GAMIR3DH, 13 Nov 2023Mine would be: 1. Screen 2. Cameras Then anything else.My prioritize are

                1: Software, without software hardware doesn't work

                2: Phone desgin and material (prefer Plastic light wight ad hardy)

                3: Hardware aka soc Display etc.., I like a midrange chip that is powerful but doesn't get very hot
                I prefer if they had the latest technology in storage and die size

                  • f
                  • funkboy
                  • DL%
                  • 13 Nov 2023

                  the main reason I buy the flagship chipset is for the increased LTE band coverage

                    • ?
                    • Anonymous
                    • 0cB
                    • 13 Nov 2023

                    iRocketFuol, 13 Nov 2023OLED iPhones (except the X and the ones from that time) don... moreEnjoy your limited toy.

                      • ?
                      • Anonymous
                      • atq
                      • 13 Nov 2023

                      Ribbz, 13 Nov 2023No mention Of Unisoc chipsets they are still very relevant To lowend users yes. Unisoc are not popular therefore games and apps are not optimised as well as snapdragon or even dimensity. In a nutshell unisoc sucks.

                        • ?
                        • Anonymous
                        • atq
                        • 13 Nov 2023

                        Flagship chipset matters to me for gaming and ui fluidity. Had a low end android once and hated it with a passion. It matters so much i choose this over camera specs etc... Display must be oled too.
                        That said if you get a bad chipset like old snapdragon 810 or the snapdragon 888/snapdragon 8 gen 1 built on Samsungs process you get heat.. Lots of it and poor battery efficiency.. Remember heat is bad for battery longevity. I actually waited for the tsmc snapdragon 8+gen1 because their process is better than Samsungs process resulting in better efficiency and 30% better performance.. This is why exynos is behind snapdragon and why tensor chipsets suck in comparison.
                        Screen resolution is also a factor when getting a phone for gaming.. The higher the resolution the more strain there is on the gpu and battery especially when gaming in 1440p at 120hz+.

                          • P
                          • Potato
                          • 0WA
                          • 13 Nov 2023

                          Depends on the midranger. If it's the latest midrange chip, it don't matter much. Unless you need genshin running at full clip or are a very heavy phone user (memory bandwith) or hardcore photographer (just get a camera already). If its an older midranger, the gap is much bigger, anything below a d1080 or 778/780 is significantly slower and will be felt, whether the user cares or not is another story. The gap is shrinking with the new chips though. Once more advanced games like genshin clones and whatnot come out we'll see if there is a need for top of the line SOC. Emulation also requires very high single core performance so most midrangers are not an option.

                            • 3
                            • 3n35
                            • meU
                            • 13 Nov 2023

                            i would say that a lot of people not use their smartphone to the limit. I would say 90% of people using smartphones for Communication (Chat, Call, Email...) and entertainment (Video, Movies). So the using case in total isnt really intensive. Most older phones would totally be enough for most of us. Of course there are the 10% of people who push the limits. Like raw video capturing, video editing, intensive gaming... But its not the majority. I could say an iphone xs could easily satisfy most of the needs of a lot of people but we are a consumer society. We are not willing to have a phone that is 5 years old or the advertising of new phones are really stimulating so you buy a new phone.

                              • ?
                              • Anonymous
                              • n4u
                              • 13 Nov 2023

                              In addition to phone gamers i think for people who would connect AR glasses wirelessly would need to buy phones with flagship chipset.

                              Qualcomm spaces wirelessly based AR glasses is what i am waiting for before upgrading my 2021 Galaxy smartphone which is still getting updates(both android and security).

                              So yeah flagship chipsets are for niche use cases only(i call phone gaming niche in western markets, in India etc it is very popular though).

                                • R
                                • Ribbz
                                • sXx
                                • 13 Nov 2023

                                No mention Of Unisoc chipsets they are still very relevant

                                  If I'm buying a high-end device the chipset is the first thing I look into. In midrange I prefer Qualcomm but Exynos (at least 1280) or several specific MediaTek chipsets are fairly enough.

                                    James Holden, 13 Nov 2023All the new phones coming out which aren't flagships. ... morehonor devices be like

                                      • i
                                      • iRocketFuol
                                      • L3}
                                      • 13 Nov 2023

                                      NeonHD, 13 Nov 2023There are so many angles to answer this question from. ... moreIf hiring unicorn developers to do the miraculous 100x optimizations needed to make Java/Kotlin-based software functional at all from a performance standpoint is too much for the average phone startup (how I look at smaller companies that can't invest in R&D without going bankrupt), that'd be inexcusable if the offender is a big company, more so if they make/leave their software intentionally slow on the lower end devices... *cough* Samsung *cough* Xiaomi... and that's what they do.

                                        • i
                                        • iRocketFuol
                                        • L3}
                                        • 13 Nov 2023

                                        elmarcello, 13 Nov 2023Nice voting, thank you. Should be made an official one. Let... moreIn theory, high end OLED panels are more than capable of doing DC dimming, instead of the PWM, fast flicker-based dimming that causes problems for you and a lot of other people. Sad thing is we can't know what brands do it because they do not care to spend an extra $5 on a display for this feature, make the software take advantage of it, or advertise it if they do.