Mobile imaging just got a serious upgrade, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is leading the charge.
Qualcomm has revealed its latest system-on-chip at the 2025 Snapdragon Summit. While it introduces new features and enhanced performance, it also features impressive camera technology that will delight content creators.
Every year, the Snapdragon platform becomes more advanced, and this year is no different. Qualcomm has introduced features that make devices powered by its latest chip far more capable, delivering professional-grade imaging. The new chipset debuts industry-first tools designed for content creators, filmmakers and photographers who want studio-quality results from mobile devices. Qualcomm has packed many features into the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, but for content creators, the new Advanced Professional Video codec may be the most exciting. This is the first system-on-chip to offer the codec, which introduces tools designed for professional-quality video.
The codec supports near-lossless, high-bitrate capture, delivering superb detail, shadow accuracy, and precise colour grading. These capabilities are vital for creators who need footage suitable for professional use. The technology preserves maximum detail for post-production, allowing filmmakers to adjust highlights and shadows and refine colour grading without degrading quality. The feature also addresses a longstanding limitation in mobile video production, where compression artifacts often disrupt professional workflows and result in subpar video capture.
Complementing the professional-grade video recording is Dragon Fusion, developed in partnership with ArcSoft. The system creates a fully computational video pipeline. While complex in design, it uses AI tone mapping to enhance colour, define shadows and produce striking highlights by treating every frame like a high-quality still image.
The result is a smartphone that can deliver cinematic colour and contrast in real time, closing the gap between mobile footage and traditional camera equipment. A Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 device can generate footage previously expected only from high-end production tools. As with all smartphone imaging, performance also depends on the optics and sensors used by the manufacturer. With a system like this, however, the capture pipeline is far more robust, helping ensure creators achieve the best possible results from their mobile device.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 also enhances still photography. The new system-on-chip supports up to 320-megapixel captures and triple-camera functionality at 48 megapixels with zero shutter lag at 30 frames per second. These specs enable ultra-sharp images that can be cropped, reframed or printed in large formats without loss of quality.
The Qualcomm Spectra Triple 20-bit AI image signal processors deliver four times the dynamic range of previous generations. This allows images to show greater detail and a wider range of colour, ensuring each photo looks more vibrant and lifelike.
Advanced video features include 8K HDR recording at 60 frames per second and 1080p slow-motion capture at 480 frames per second. The platform also introduces Hardware Bokeh Engine 2 for video, enabling real-time depth-of-field effects along with AI-driven skin and sky tone adjustments during 4K recording at 60 frames per second.
Security and authenticity are addressed through Truepic photo capture integration, which embeds C2PA-compliant certificates into images. This feature verifies image provenance, responding to growing concerns about digital manipulation in journalism and legal documentation.
From the announcements, Qualcomm appears to be taking content creation and photography seriously with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. On paper, the new system-on-chip offers impressive features that highlight the potential of a mobile processor and help Qualcomm close the gap with Apple’s smartphones, narrowing the divide between Android and iOS.
As always, real-world performance will determine how these features hold up. On paper, however, Qualcomm seems to be making the right moves, and the coming months will reveal how the technology performs in new flagship devices.
Check out our other Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 news, including insight on AI and mobile gaming.
