Qualcomm has announced Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 – new hardware that has been optimised to power next-gen smartphones – while keeping the price in check. The new hardware is based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that was launched in 2023, but customised, bringing with it a couple of advantages.
While it might sound like the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is an upgraded version of the existing hardware that powers phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra – the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 actually sits below the 8 Gen 3.
Qualcomm has customised the Snapdragon 8 hardware, focusing on the ability to deliver AI-powered experiences, but making compromises in other areas. That will allow manufacturers to offer phones at more attractive prices – brands like Honor, Redmi and Xiaomi are signed up to deliver devices – with announcements expected imminently.
Qualcomm says that Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is designed to deliver the gaming, photography and AI experiences that you will want, selecting these capabilities as the main attributes for the new hardware.
How is Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 different to Snapdragon 8 Gen 3?
In a nutshell, the makeup of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 hardware isn’t as geared to pure performance as the 8 Gen 3 and focuses more on efficiency. It will mean it probably runs some tasks a little slower, but it’s likely to use less power and stay cooler too.
Both use a Kyro CPU, but the prime core in the 8s Gen 3 is clocked at 3.0GHz instead of 3.4GHz. There are then four performance cores clocked at 2.8GHz instead of five performance cores at 3.2GHz like in the 8 Gen 3. Finally, there are three efficiency cores at 2.0GHz compared to two efficiency cores at 2.3GHz in the 8 Gen 3.
In terms of graphics, while the 8s Gen 3 supports features like high dynamic range (HDR) and Ray Tracing, it doesn’t support all the same graphical illumination options, so the 8 Gen 3 is likely to be slightly better for gaming. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could give you a faster network connection too because it has a more powerful 5G antenna.
When it comes to photography, a wide range of functions are supported, so you’ll be able to use the latest sensors and HDR tech, but the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 doesn’t support 8K HDR video capture.
The ultimate result is that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 hardware is likely to give you all the features you really want in a smartphone with little compromise. Yes, there will be some flagship features it doesn’t quite stretch to and it will likely be beaten in gaming performance by 8 Gen 3 devices, but if you’ve saved yourself some cash buying the phone, that might be a compromise you’re happy to accept.
