Xiaomi 18 Pro Performance Tested With Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6
The Xiaomi 18 Pro has arrived in hands outside China ahead of its commercial launch in France, yielding early performance data for Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 processor. Frandroid reporters purchased a Chinese retail unit of the device following its initial presentation on Sept. 23, providing an early look at how the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chip handles benchmark testing and hardware thermal management.
AnTuTu and 3DMark Benchmark Scores
Testing across multiple evaluation suites places the Xiaomi 18 Pro alongside leading current Android hardware, though it does not claim the top spot overall. Running AnTuTu 10, 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, and Geekbench 6 combined, the device registered 62,923 points. That aggregate score places it just behind hardware powered by the preceding Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 generation, trailing the Xiaomi 17 Ultra by under 2 percent and the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra by nearly 6 percent. The Galaxy S26 Ultra led that composite index with 66,736 points, while the Xiaomi 18 Pro outperformed the Google Pixel 11 Pro and its Tensor G6 chip by approximately 23 percent.
AnTuTu 11 Platform Standings
AnTuTu 11 yields a different positioning, ranking the Xiaomi 18 Pro third with 3,818,907 points. In that specific test, the device sits behind the Oppo Find X9 Ultra and Realme GT 8 Pro from the previous hardware generation.
Geekbench 7 Multi-Core Metrics
On Geekbench 7, the Xiaomi 18 Pro achieves 2,920 points in single-core evaluation and 8,248 points in multi-core performance. This marks a roughly 27 percent advantage over the Pixel 11 Pro across both single and multi-core metrics. Against Apple’s ecosystem, the A20 Pro chip inside the iPhone 18 Pro outperforms the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 by about 38 percent in both individual core output and total processor utilization.
Thermal Output Under Heavy Load
Testing also revealed notable thermal output during sustained computational loads. Executing benchmark sequences caused the device temperature to rise rapidly, reaching 51.8 °C on the front display panel and 50.6 °C on the rear casing during AnTuTu v10 runs.
Firmware Differences and French Market Adjustments
Hardware configuration differences remain a factor for the units currently circulating. The tested device runs a Chinese firmware build with Google Play Services installed, featuring interface elements and an AI assistant restricted to Chinese language settings. Future retail units designated for the French market are expected to feature altered battery specifications, and Qualcomm and Xiaomi are slated to roll out further software optimizations ahead of the official European release.