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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justasmile, 12 Nov 2023If it wasn't for 108mp sensor, the camera wouldn'... moreAhh sent 2 comments

    justasmile, 12 Nov 2023If it wasn't for 108mp sensor, the camera wouldn'... moreI thought the megapixel race was unnecessary but it's useful.. just amazing isn't it? mid range chips can beat flagships in cameras. This is further helped by Xiaomi's very good image processing.

      For Android, yes, it matters, simply because Qualcomm intentionally restrict their best modem, ISP, and GPU only on the Snapdragon 8 series. Even an old SD870 still run circles around the latest SD6 series chips. So if you care about things like modem performance, camera quality, or gaming performance, you want the flagship chips. Even older ones are still better than the newer mid range chips. The only exception maybe just the SD7gen2. Anything less, and you get subpar modem, ISP, and GPU. The mid range chips are okay for regular tasks, but if you’re into photography/videography or gaming, getting an older flagship phone is better than buying the latest mid range.

      It matters less for iPhones since they all have flagship chips. Even the crappiest iPhone SE uses a flagship chip, just older ones. So when buying iPhones, you don’t really have to worry much even if you buy an older iPhone. You are still getting the best chip, ISP, and GPU for the model’s original release time.

        CPU smartphone performance has stalled really long now since ARM's Cortex-A77 and Apple A14 and as for GPU, it won't matter much when games don't utilise it properly. I'm still using Realme X2 Pro on Android 10 and the upgrades don't really justify nor are they exciting. Midrange phones nowadays last much better than before.

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          • Oki
          • swm
          • 12 Nov 2023

          No one except gamers buys a flagship phone because of the chipset. Most people don't even know what chipset their phone has and on top of that the difference between a good midrange cpu and flagship one is unnoticeable in day to day work. Cameras play the biggest role in people's choice of flagship.

            • ?
            • Anonymous
            • N6r
            • 12 Nov 2023

            No need for any cpu higher than SD 778G for 100 years

              rizki1, 12 Nov 2023how is it beaten? it's the best camera phone. Already ... moreIf it wasn't for 108mp sensor, the camera wouldn't be ranked that high.

                That's a difficult question, so, yes and no.

                I upgraded from SnapDragon 845 to SnapDragon 8 Gen2 only because the latter supported hardware AV1 decoding. All the other features and performance improvements are pretty low on the list of requirements.

                  Tbh midrange chipsets are more than enough. They have come a long a way and can easily run any device atleast for next 4-5years (unless manufacturers don't screwed up the device through updates)

                    Mbi, 12 Nov 2023I don't need flagship chip, I don't play games in... moreget nothing phone 1 if still available

                      Anonymous, 12 Nov 2023For long battery life no. For everything else yes. But usua... morehow is the camera quality compared to midrange phones today?

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                        • Anonymous
                        • 0cB
                        • 12 Nov 2023

                        For long battery life no. For everything else yes. But usually midrangers are already good enough. I use Samsung A52. Still works fine but I'm not a gamer. For social media and web browsing and music yes it is good. Very strange that 2 years old midrange phone has 90HZ screen but new iPhone 15 has only 60HZ. Waste of money.

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                          • Anonymous
                          • XSs
                          • 12 Nov 2023

                          Meanwhile iTroll left the chat

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                            • Anonymous
                            • XTA
                            • 12 Nov 2023

                            meanwhile some people still using 15 years old chipset

                              Making chipsets faster in smartphones will only make battery suffer and short-lived. If it's for PCs/laptops then we'd say otherwise because there are cases where users benefit from higher performance on Windows and Linux platforms for productivity and gaming.

                              We need MORE features (like bringing back sd card/headphone jack/ir blaster, like 2-way sat communication, dedicated privacy buttons/silent button, replaceable battery) and BETTER battery technology, not higher benchmark numbers or cameras where they already perform on par or sometimes even better than DSLR.

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                                • Mbi
                                • XVx
                                • 12 Nov 2023

                                I don't need flagship chip, I don't play games in the phone, for other things I just need midrange chip with ling battery life. I just need flagship camera, but unfortunately they don't make phones with flagship camera without flagship chip.

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                                  • Sixo
                                  • xjH
                                  • 12 Nov 2023

                                  rizki1, 12 Nov 2023back in 2019 Mi Note 10 was the best camera phone but used ... moreMy 2012 Nokia 808 still have best camera quality with weak cpu 🤣

                                    Anonymous, 12 Nov 2023I just want the most efficient chip for the longest battery... moreYou say the fastest chip is the most battery efficient as though that's always the case.

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                                      • Anonymous
                                      • Rxq
                                      • 12 Nov 2023

                                      flagship is still 2 x faster than mid range. and 2yrs ago flagship is still faster than today's mid range. The sad thing is, I always want flagship chipset for my primary phone which never install junks, while secondary phone for gaming and junk apps.

                                        the thing that suffers the most on non-flagship chips is the ISP even if the performance is good enough you can hardly find a phone with great iflagship-grade image quality because of inferior ISP, brand have to implement their own solutions to tackle this (which they rarely do)