OnePlus Ace 5: A Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered phone offering flagship-level gaming experience at a mid-range price?

OnePlus Ace 5: A Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered phone offering flagship-level gaming experience at a mid-range price?Officially launched on December 26th, the OnePlus Ace 5 has garnered significant attention for its excellent price-to-performance ratio and impressive gaming capabilities. Its gaming performance is particularly noteworthy, rivaling even recently released flagship models

OnePlus Ace 5: A Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered phone offering flagship-level gaming experience at a mid-range price?

Officially launched on December 26th, the OnePlus Ace 5 has garnered significant attention for its excellent price-to-performance ratio and impressive gaming capabilities. Its gaming performance is particularly noteworthy, rivaling even recently released flagship models. Boasting flagship-level specifications, it's powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform, a previous generation flagship processor. While not the latest flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 remains undeniably powerful and highly competitive even in 2023.

The perfect synergy between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and OnePlus' self-developed "Windforce" gaming engine ensures consistently smooth and lag-free gameplay on the OnePlus Ace 5, without overheating. It pushes the boundaries of frame rates and graphics quality in current mainstream games, delivering a significant leap in gaming experience. Beyond gaming, the OnePlus Ace 5 offers a well-rounded performance across the board, with satisfying results in performance, network connectivity, battery life, and design, showcasing the leading advantages of a flagship chip.

The exceptional gaming performance of the OnePlus Ace 5 is a testament to the combined power of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1's robust hardware and OnePlus' software optimization with the Windforce gaming engine. As a previous generation flagship processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 utilizes the Kryo CPU architecture and a 4nm fabrication process. While it has some performance and efficiency gaps compared to successors like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, it still holds a significant position in the high-performance mobile market. In the sub-$300 high-performance smartphone market, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is undoubtedly a leading choice.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 boasts a 40% improvement in power efficiency compared to its predecessor, with significant upgrades to both the Kryo CPU and Adreno GPU. Despite differences in process technology, performance, and power efficiency compared to the latest flagship processors, it readily meets the demands of current mainstream mobile games. Major game developers have already optimized for high frame rate modes on this platform, ensuring smooth gameplay without any issues. In current mobile game benchmark tests, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 continues to achieve perfect scores. Further enhancing gaming experience requires the optimization provided by OnePlus' Windforce gaming engine.

The Windforce gaming engine delves deep into the chip's architecture, minimizing unnecessary power consumption and directing chip performance towards enhancing gaming experience. This technology not only restructures CPU game performance scheduling but also restructures the GPU rendering pipeline. The super frame rate feature, implemented through the Windforce engine, performs calculations within the chip itself. Compared to independent external discrete graphics chips, this achieves zero-latency frame insertion, resulting in smooth visuals and eliminating issues like screen tearing and algorithm frame drops.

To determine whether the combination of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the Windforce gaming engine significantly improves gaming experience and maintains smooth operation at higher graphics settings, we tested it with "Honkai: Star Rail."

• The test scenario involved the high-load Golden Hour map, with game graphics quality set to maximum, bloom effect set to maximum, and resolution set to high (1680763). A 15-minute gameplay test showed an average frame rate of 54.9 fps, with frame rate fluctuations in high-load areas resulting in noticeable stutters. The front surface temperature reached 41.3C, and the back surface temperature reached 42.5C. Aggressive tuning for full frame rate operation would lead to uncontrolled overheating.

After enabling OnePlus Ace 5's super frame rate function, the frame rate increased from 60 fps to 90 fps. Retesting under the same scenario, the average frame rate rose to 87.1 fps. While fluctuations still occurred, the frame rate remained consistently above 60 fps, resulting in a noticeably smoother gaming experience. Enabling the super frame rate feature increased temperature and power consumption. The front surface temperature rose to 43.8C, and the back surface temperature rose to 45.7C (2-3C higher), while battery drain increased from 7% to 10%. This extra power consumption translates to a smoother and more enjoyable gaming experience.

• "Honkai: Star Rail" supports even higher resolutions. We set the resolution to maximum (2160981), approaching FHD level. At the highest resolution, stuttering became more significant, and the gaming experience was inferior to the high-resolution setting. However, enabling the super frame rate function maintained smoothness, with an average frame rate of 82.4 fps.

Real-world game testing demonstrates that the OnePlus Ace 5, with its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform and Windforce gaming engine, delivers a smooth gaming experience even at higher graphics settings.

Beyond gaming, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 supports other advanced specifications. It features the Snapdragon X75 5G modem-RF system and FastConnect 7800 mobile connectivity system, supporting more stable network connections, including 5.5G and Wi-Fi 7. Combined with the OnePlus Ace 5's network optimization features, it effectively prevents game disconnections.

In terms of imaging, the Spectra ISP provides 18-bit triple ISP support, and the Hexagon NPU provides support for low-level algorithm calculations. The OnePlus Ace 5 can capture high-quality photos in various scenarios and utilizes the Hexagon NPU's powerful computational capabilities to support flagship-level features such as AI noise reduction, ultra-clear pixels, motion blur reduction, and bloom reduction.

Conclusion:

Our experience with the OnePlus Ace 5 reveals that Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 powered phones offer exceptional value for money, still providing a flagship-level gaming experience. If you seek high performance while keeping your budget in check, the OnePlus Ace 5 is a compelling option. Those eagerly awaiting the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or even the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Plus need not have excessive expectations. Firstly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Plus hasn't been released yet; secondly, based on previous naming conventions, the "Plus" variant is usually reserved for flagship models, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 itself may not be positioned as a flagship. Instead of waiting, opting for a true flagship phone powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, such as the OnePlus Ace 5, is a more practical and cost-effective choice.