Qualcomm"s lineup of high-end mobile chips has just received one more SKU. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is now official, promising a slightly more affordable platform for premium smartphones. According to the company, the 8s Gen 3 delivers "the most sought-after 8 series capabilities to more Android flagship smartphones."
Qualcomm focused on four areas when making the new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Mobile Platform: on-device generative AI, a high-end ISP, powerful graphics for mobile games, and flagship connectivity with high-res audio support. Qualcomm"s senior VP and general manager of mobile handsets, Christ Patrick, commented:
With capabilities including on-device generative AI and advanced photography features, Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is designed to enhance user experiences, fostering creativity and productivity in their daily lives. We’re elated to introduce the latest addition to our premium Snapdragon 8-series, our most premium mobile offering, bringing a host of exceptional specially selected capabilities to more consumers.
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (built using a 4nm process) features three clusters of CPU cores. One is Cortex-X4 operating at 3.0GHz, four Cortex-A720 at 2.8GHz, and three Cortex-A520 at 2.0GHz. The built-in Adreno graphics support hardware-accelerated ray tracing, albeit without global illumination, unlike its more expensive Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 sibling. The latter also features more CPU cores with higher speeds and slightly faster memory.
The ISP is similar to the one in the Snadragpn 8 Gen 3, with the only exception being the lack of 8K HDR video recording (4K 60 FPS max). However, it still supports H.265, VP9, and AV1 decoding at up to 4K.
On the connectivity side, the new chip features Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 support, and the integrated X70 modem (a slightly slower version of the one in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2) supports up to 5000Mbps download speeds in mmWave and sub-6 networks.
Customers can expect the first wave of smartphones powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 later this month. Qualcomm mentions Honor, iQOO, realme, Redmi, and Xiaomi among the first OEMs to adopt its newest chip.