But it's the same card, confirmed by OP. I'd understand if it's say credit card EMV vs Apple Pay. But if it's same card, it should be undergoing the same process in talking you the bank. The only difference would then be isolated to the actual tech (or how the app coded the communication with the tech). So the argument made by top answer regarding validity of the card shouldn't be a factor.

We're talking about the same exact card, right? In that 3 seconds, the charge slip is already being printed out, whereas it takes 8 for the dipped chip?

I suspect the app on the terminal reading the EMV takes its sweet time to talk to the card since it knows the card is just there. Whereas with contactless, the an imperative to optimize the communication. TL;DR bad programming of the app.

Both should work more or less within the same time window. Or at least not take 5 frigging seconds longer.

Dipping the EMV chip credit card and tapping a contactless credit card takes the same time in my experience. This is the bank process. It may seem slower only because they make you pull the card out once the entire charge slip printout is done, whereas you can remove the tapped card before the slip is printed for example.

There's a possibility that the protocol is different elsewhere and EMV processing really needs the card to be in until charge slip printout. But that's a design flaw if so from when banks didn't think it's needed optimize.

I agree.

Having worked on contactless technology, it's the same speed as when you dip the EMV chip.