This is a new Snapdragon chip aimed at high-end mid-range Android smartphones, or simply put, near-high-end.
Qualcomm has just introduced a new chip designed to not only provide performance like current high-end smartphones but also ensure an extremely attractive price. Called Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, the chip aims to bring most of the features of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, including on-device synthetic AI models, to more affordable phones. It represents a new level for the flagship Snapdragon 8 series chips and is also “a bit confusing”.
Before we get into all that, let's start with the simple stuff: The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 includes the same GPU as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, though it has one less performing core and runs at a lower frequency. lower (the main core runs at a maximum speed of 3 GHz, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is 3.4 GHz). The new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 also uses the previous generation modem, Snapdragon X70 5G, with support for Wi-Fi 7. There are also hardware-accelerated ray tracing support so optical games run smoother - which has become a benchmark for today's top smartphones.
Of course, AI is indispensable in new chips. Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 supports multimodal creative AI right on the device and can run large language models with up to 10 billion parameters, including models like Llama 2 and Gemini Nano. It doesn't offer all the AI capabilities of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 but is still a great value.
The appearance of Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is a very notable thing and may be confusing for many people. To save costs on near-high-end smartphone models, many phone manufacturers are choosing Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 - the leading chip of 2022 - on their products, such as the OnePlus 12R. Besides, the company also has Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 located right below Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, although this chip has only appeared on a few products. Qualcomm seems to be narrowing the line between high-end and mid-range smartphones to prevent OEMs from switching to MediaTek chips for more budget-friendly devices.
Finally, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 will start appearing on the market soon, although not on devices available in the US. Honor, iQOO, Realme, Redmi and Xiaomi all said they will use Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and expect new devices "in the coming months".