Apple and Qualcomm drive flagship smartphone performance gains

Recent developments in mobile hardware highlight significant advancements in both charging capabilities and processing power for flagship smartphones.

Apple has improved the charging speeds of its iPhone 18 Pro series. Tests indicate the iPhone 18 Pro Max can reach peak charging power of approximately 52 watts, compared to 36 watts on the previous iPhone 17 Pro Max. This allows the device to charge from 0 to 100% in about 55 minutes, down from 81 minutes for the prior generation. To achieve these speeds, users require a compatible adapter capable of delivering 60 watts or more.

In the Android ecosystem, Qualcomm has introduced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 processor. Built on a 2 nm process, the Extreme version features a maximum frequency of 5 GHz for its Prime cores. The chip includes enhanced AI capabilities and GPU improvements through Neural Fusion technology for better gaming performance. Reference units tested during the Snapdragon Summit featured 24 GB of RAM.