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Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8s Gen 3: A Cheaper Chip For Premium Phones

by Ryan Smith on March 18, 2024 2:30 AM EST - Posted in - Mobile - Snapdragon - Qualcomm - SoCs - Cortex-X4 - Snapdragon 8s With the launch of their flagship Snapdragon 8 SoC firmly behind them now, Qualcomm this morning is turning their collective head towards the premium market with the launch of another new Snapdragon 8 family SoC, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. The first of Qualcomm’s ‘s’-subseries of down-market parts to be released under the Snapdragon 8 banner, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (8SG3) is intended to be a bridge part between the last-gen flagship 8 Gen 2 and current-gen flagship 8 Gen 3, offering a not-quite-flagship experience at a lower price point than Qualcomm’s top SoC.

Compared to the 8G2 then, there are two key differentiators for the 8SG3: a newer CPU complex lifted from the 8G3, and official on-device generative AI support. This means the 8SG2’s integrated GPU offers hardware raytracing, for example, but not the global illumination support that was introduced for the flagship 8G3. In any case, expect to see the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 picked up by many of the usual Chinese handset OEMs, including Honor, iQOO, realme, Redmi and Xiaomi.

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