5 Smartphones More Powerful Than The Laptop You Bought A Few Years Ago

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Smartphones have evolved a lot in recent years, and some are even more powerful than laptops released just a few years ago. That's because they now come equipped with more efficient processors, extra memory, and have also gone through some major cooling advances, which makes current models able to handle several heavy tasks. Therefore, games, high-resolution video editing, and multitasking have become something these devices can handle with more ease.

Some of this difference is evident when we compare recent smartphone processors to standard laptop specs from 2023 or even more recent years. The benchmark scores for the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen are very good, especially when compared with older processors that were used in laptops a few years ago. For example, many smartphones today come with productivity features that support external screens and power to run many apps at once, so multitasking can easily match a laptop from a few years ago, especially for working tasks.

Samsung's Galaxy S26 Ultra, which is one of the best Android phones of 2026, beats many laptops of the recent years. It comes with a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, which is also one of its best new features. In benchmarks, this chip has got great benchmark numbers. It managed to achieve 3,698 points in single-core and 11,093 points in multi-core, and it also comes with 12GB or 16GB of RAM, which provides additional processing power for demanding apps.

On a benchmark, Dell's own 2023-released Latitude 3340, with a Core i5-1335U, scored 2,054 points in single-core and 7,049 points in multi-core. That difference is also reflected in certain tests, where the Galaxy processes 288.3 megapixels per second when rendering a PDF, while the Dell only processes 97.1, and 185.7 images per second in the Photo Library test, versus 112.2 from the notebook.

The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is powered by the same Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy found in the Galaxy S26, giving the foldable performance that can outpace some 2023 premium laptops. This includes models such as the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 with Intel's Core i7-1355U. Looking at the Geekbench 6 results, the Fold 8 comfortably comes out ahead, especially in multi-core performance.

The Fold 8 can handle demanding games, image and video editing, and heavy multitasking without any slowdowns. The model also comes with 16GB of RAM, which is comparable to many premium laptops available in 2023. Unlike those notebooks, though, the Fold 8's hardware is crammed into a device that's only a few millimeters thick when it's unfolded, with a 7.6-inch internal display that can run several apps at once. DeX pushes the comparison further. Combined with multitasking on a foldable phone, this feature lets you connect your smartphone to a monitor, keyboard, and mouse, while supporting multiple workspaces and windowed apps.

When releasing the OnePlus 15, the company made it clear that it built this device especially for delivering a good gaming performance and not for multitasking. In fact, none of the marketing for the device talked about replacing a computer for daily tasks. However, the phone still ranks among the fastest ever released, with 3,606 points in single-core performance and 11,442 in multi-core when tested in Geekbench 6. These scores are better than many older laptop models released in the past few years.

The OnePlus 15 holds a good lead over the Ryzen 7 7730U, for example, a processor common in laptops by 2023, especially in single-core work. In Geekbench's Ray Tracer test, a stand-in for rendering-heavy tasks, the OnePlus 15 processes 2.94 megapixels per second against 2.08 for the Ryzen chip. That said, sustained graphics-heavy workloads can get the phone running hot and lose some of that initial speed, but in multitasking and large documents, it still outperforms many laptops built for office work.

The iPhone 17 Pro Max is powered by the A19 Pro, one of Apple's strongest chips yet, with performance that now rivals some of the company's laptop chips. By comparison, the 2023 MacBook Air M2 scores around 2,349 single-core and 9,661 multi-core on Geekbench 6, while the iPhone 17 Pro Max scores over 3,800 in single-core and around 10,100 in multi-core.

While the 2023 MacBook is still a laptop very capable of handling tasks like writing, multitasking, and even some games, the gap has narrowed a lot in recent years. That is because, in 2023, the iPhone 15 Pro chip was not that competitive with an M2, especially for gaming. Today, an iPhone 17 Pro Max can run games like "Resident Evil 4" and "Resident Evil 2" in a stable way at 1080p, something older chips could not do. 

Its new vapor chamber and aluminum unibody also help it perform for longer. When running certain games, the M2 MacBook Air can still pull ahead, depending on settings and resolution, but Apple's flagship iPhone is now far closer to its 2023 laptop than previous models were, and that also helps it retain its resale value. What's more, the MacBook Neo released in early 2026 actually runs on the A18 Pro chipset — the same processor from the iPhone 16 Pro.

Motorola decided to use the older Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset for the Razr Ultra 2026, instead of moving to the newer Gen 5 processor that many other companies put in their flagships. However, even with a weaker processor, the Razr Ultra 2026 manages to deliver better performance than many older laptops, especially ones with a Core i5-1335U. For example, the Geekbench's Photo Library test results have the Razr Ultra processing 142.5 images per second, while the Dell Inspiron 15 3530 manages 119.8 images per second.

The Razr Ultra also comes with Smart Connect, which is one of the best perks of switching to a Motorola phone. That is because, thanks to this feature, it becomes easier to connect the phone to a computer, allowing the user to control it better, and even making it possible to drag and drop files between devices. Another point is that the Razr Ultra also comes with 16GB of RAM, which is quite useful, especially for anyone who buys a phone with multitasking in mind. Thanks to this extra memory, it is possible to maintain the phone's performance, even when you need to keep several apps open. So, you can edit a document while copying information from the messaging app, without needing to keep switching apps.

To determine which models would make this list, we researched the most powerful phones sold in the United States and compared them with laptops that were also popular in 2022 and 2023 — which is what we consider to be a few years ago. We also selected 2023 as the cutoff year for laptops because those models remain recent enough for users to still use them, but old enough to show how smartphone chips have evolved.

We compared benchmark results from all these products, since in this context, more powerful refers to the smartphones' raw performance in single-core and multi-core tests and how they perform at daily tasks. Laptops have larger screens and access to Windows or macOS, which offers a wider range of apps and gives them a major advantage. However, we limited the comparison to productivity-focused laptops, since gaming models have stronger processors and dedicated GPUs that give them a significant advantage.