Only mid-range chips from Qualcomm, such as the Snapdragon 7 Gen Segmentation is no longer valid, since the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the American manufacturer’s high-end chipset, is now available in an “s” version. Enough to hope for a new wave of high-end mobiles, but at a price a little more contained than the models equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 adopts an architecture close to that of the 8 Gen 3, at least with regard to the CPU cores used; there are Cortex-X4, Cortex-A720 and Cortex-A520. With this difference that the Cortex-X4, main core, is clocked at 3 GHz (compared to 3.3 GHz within the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3), and that it includes four Cortex-A720s at 2.8 GHz (compared to five , at different frequencies), and three Cortex-A510 (2 GHz). The 1+5+2 configuration of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 therefore gives way to a 1+4+3 type arrangement. The CPU part is not the only one to undergo slight changes, since it includes an Adreno 735 GPU, instead of the Adreno 750. On the modem side also, the X75 gives way to an X70 inherited from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Finally, we note that the chip does not allow filming beyond 4K at 60 fps, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is compatible with 8K.
Despite its few technical compromises, Qualcomm’s latest SoC retains most of the features of the premium chip, such as compatibility with WiFi 7, support for 24 GB of LPDDR5x RAM, triple ISP (18-bit) and, above all, the emphasis on artificial intelligence. THE chipset promises support for various language models, including Llama 2 and Gemini Nano. Generative functions on-devicesuch as image creation or an AI assistant, can be used on smartphones equipped with 8s Gen 3.
As usual, Qualcomm announces the upcoming availability of its chip from certain partners, and cites Honor, iQOO, Realme and Xiaomi, of which Redmi models equipped with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 are expected. The first smartphones carrying the new chipset will be announced before the end of March.