Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 for smartphones.
The chipset features the same processing power as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but uses last year’s flagship GPU. This lets end users afford the experience in a wallet-friendlier package.
But don’t be mistaken, the new Snapdragon processor is still a flagship-tier chipset.
Among features in common with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 consists of 1 Cortex-X4, 3 Cortex-A520 cores, and 4 Cortex-A720 cores.
However, the cores have reduced clock speeds, running on 3GHz, 2GHz, and 2.8GHz respectively.
The chipset also provides Generative AI support for large language models with up to 10 billion parameters.
Qualcomm however, did acknowledge that it was slower than its top-end processor. So you should expect slower speeds when generating images, for example.
Additionally, the Snapdragon 8s has the same TSMC 4nm manufacturing process, FastConnect 7800 connectivity, and LPDDR5X RAM support.
The silver lining for the chipset is a handful of camera features. This is inclusive of a triple ISP for smooth transitions between three cameras, support for 200MP cameras, real-time semantic segmentation in photos and videos (up to 12 layers), and improved low-light video.
In terms of what it lacks, this processor makes some compromises consisting of dropping 8K recording, 4K/120fps recording, and 720p/60fps video in favor of 4K/60fps and 1080p/240fps.
For other notable features, the chipset has AV1 decoding, Bluetooth 5.4, aptX/aptX Lossless/aptX Adaptive, support for 144Hz screens at QHD+, Quick Charge 5 capabilities, Snapdragon Seamless integration, and Wi-Fi 7.
The first phones to be powered by this chipset is expected to launch at the end of the month. Qualcomm mentioned that HONOR, Iqoo, realme, Redmi, and Xiaomi are among the OEMs to use the new chipset.
Qualcomm also noted that they expect phones with the chipset to cost between USD 500 and USD 800. This sets the tone for upper-mid range phones to run on the new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.
