The mobile device market is undergoing a quiet but noticeable shift in roles: what required a full-fledged laptop just a few years ago now fits in your pocket. RBC-Ukraine, citing the publication BGR, has put together a roundup of five flagship smartphones whose latest chips deliver performance in synthetic tests that matches or even exceeds that of popular work laptops released only a few years ago. The selection criteria were clean benchmark results — single-core and multi-core performance, graphics and document processing speed — compared against laptops from 2022–2023. According to the authors, in a number of tasks mobile processors already confidently outperform desktop solutions of previous generations.
Flagship on the A19 Pro Chip: PC-Level Performance
The first device on the list is built on the A19 Pro processor, whose performance, according to BGR, approaches that of Apple's PC chips. In the Geekbench 6 test, this mobile flagship scores over 3800 points in single-core mode and around 10100 points in multi-core, allowing it to outpace the 2023 MacBook Air M2, which scored 2349 and 9661 points respectively. The design plays an important role: an aluminum unified platform combined with a vapor chamber cooling system lets the smartphone consistently run heavy games such as Resident Evil 4 at 1080p resolution without critical throttling.
Gaming Device and Rendering Speed
The second entry in the roundup is a gaming-oriented smartphone that scores 11442 points in multi-core testing and 3606 in single-core. The results in the specialized Ray Tracer rendering test are particularly telling: the device processes 2.94 megapixels per second, whereas the popular 2023 laptop processor Ryzen 7 7730U manages only 2.08 megapixels per second. A gap of nearly 40% clearly shows that mobile graphics is no longer a compromise option.
Snapdragon 8 Elite and the Smart Connect Ecosystem
The third smartphone runs on last year's, yet still relevant, Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. In the Photo Library photo-processing test it delivers 142.5 frames per second, confidently outpacing the Dell Inspiron 15 3530 laptop, which scored 119.8 frames. With 16 GB of RAM and the Smart Connect ecosystem, the device can be used in multi-window mode and seamlessly transfer files to a PC, making the smartphone a full participant in the workflow rather than just a companion.
Foldable Smartphone as a Workstation Replacement
The fourth device is a foldable smartphone on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy chip with 16 GB of RAM. It easily outpaces premium business laptops from 2023, such as the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 with an Intel Core i7-1355U processor. On the internal 7.6-inch display, combined with Samsung DeX mode, the device effectively replaces a workstation: you can connect an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse, turning the foldable smartphone into a mobile office.
Fifth Flagship and Document Rendering
Completing the list is one of the most powerful Android smartphones of 2026, built on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor with up to 16 GB of RAM. In synthetic tests it scores 3698 points in single-core and 11093 points in multi-core mode. For comparison: the Dell Latitude 3340 (2023) laptop based on the Core i5-1335U scores only 2054 and 7049 points. While rendering PDFs, the smartphone processes 288.3 megapixels per second versus 97.1 for the laptop — a nearly threefold advantage.
Methodology and Caveats
It is important to note that the roundup is built on comparisons with popular work laptops from 2022–2023, not with current 2026 flagships. This means that in real-world scenarios — long-running computations, working with large databases, professional video editing — a full-fledged laptop with more powerful cooling and greater memory capacity still remains the preferable choice. Nevertheless, for everyday tasks, light editing, rendering, and mobile work, smartphones already offer performance that was recently the prerogative of desktop platforms.
