While MediaTek has been dominating the mid-range segment for quite some time, this does not stop Qualcomm from releasing competitive mid-range chips–even if not all brands utilize their new processors. One of the rarely-used Qualcomm processors is the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, which is found on phones like the HONOR X9b 5G. As a successor to the popular Snapdragon 695, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 aims to offer upgrades across the board. With all these upgrades, how good is this processor? We put the HONOR X9b 5G to the test to see the general performance of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1:
Synthetic Benchmarks
While not all benchmark tests are optimized for the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, the general results we got reveal that it slots in below the 2-year-old Snapdragon 778G. Compared to the Snapdragon 665 it replaces, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 shows improvements in both single and multi-core CPU tests.
While Geekbench did not give an accurate representation of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1’s GPU performance, 3DMark’s Wild Life gave us a clearer picture. Comparing the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 to a Snapdragon 695, you’re getting almost double the performance when it comes to GPU-intensive tasks like gaming. This boost in GPU performance also places the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 close to the Snapdragon 778G.
Stress Test
In running 3DMark’s Wild Life Stress Test, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 was consistent with its performance, pulling of a near-perfect stability score. This shows that throttling should not be an issue with this mid-range chip. The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1’s stability is further seen with its thermals, where a full stress test run of Wild Life increased its temperature from a base of 30 degrees Celsius to 35 degrees Celsius.
Gaming Test
With the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 slotting below the well-loved Snapdragon 778G, our theory is that the former should fare well with heavy gaming. For our gaming test, we ran Genshin Impact and Honkai Star Rail in high graphics and with 60FPS enabled to see the limits of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1.
According to the results we obtained from GameBench, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 fared well. In Genshin Impact, we were doing an average of 42FPS at 90% stability, which is within range of what we experienced on any Snapdragon 778G-powered phone. Temperatures peaked at 42 degrees Celsius, but the phone remained comfortable to hold after two 5-minute runs of intensive end-game content.
Honkai Star Rail is more demanding than Genshin Impact, and the latest chips have a challenge of maximizing performance despite all the optimizations made to the game, With the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, we managed to do slightly above 30FPS, with an average of 35FPS. Stability is at a decent 72%, and temperatures peaked at 36 degrees Celsius.Â
Final Thoughts
Our test with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 powering the HONOR X9b 5G shows that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 6 series is finally back to being a competitive mid-range chipset after years of being overshadowed by the Snapdragon 7 series. With its similarities to the Snapdragon 778G, we expect phone brands to use the Snapdragon 6 Gen in future releases.
The HONOR X9b 5G is one of the first phones to use this decent mid-range processor, and there are reports that other brands will release a Snapdragon 6 Gen 1-powered phone soon.
