Everything you need to know

On March 17, 2024, Qualcomm announced yet another flagship chipset – Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. This chipset is a bit confusing, as it comes just five months after the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 debuted and slots in right below that chipset. So, it’s not the most premium flagship chipset.

With the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, Qualcomm is focusing more on artificial intelligence features that OEMs would be able to use, including high-speed on-device Generative AI. The clock speeds of each core in the CPU have also been reduced, as well as a few other features being omitted here, compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. So here’s everything you need to know about the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and why you might want your next phone to have this chipset.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 specs

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 has a lot of the same specs as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but there are still quite a few differences. So in the table below, you’ll see the two chipsets compared. Giving you a good look at which chipset is better.

Snapdragon X70 5G Modem

For some reason, Qualcomm has decided to use a slightly older 5G Modem in the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. We’re looking at the Snapdragon X70, which was announced back in March of 2022 and used in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It is actually a tiny bit different, though, as the downlink is slower (about half) than what was included in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. So it appears that Qualcomm is nerfing it a bit. Still, 5Gbps downlink is likely more than plenty for most people.

Perhaps a little more puzzling here is the fact that it only supports the 3GPP Release 17 and not Release 18. That won’t affect many in day-to-day usage, but you still want your phone to have the most recent 5G release.

Cameras are also nerfed in Snapdragon 8s Gen 3

Along with using an older modem, Qualcomm has also nerfed camera support on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. The big one is, no 8K video support. That’s not a huge deal, as most phones don’t even take advantage of 8K video, other than Samsung’s flagship phones. And to be honest, 8K video is still overkill and doesn’t look that great.

Additionally, 4K video capture is now limited to 4K60 on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, though slow-motion has received a bit of a mixed update here. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 does slow-motion at 720p at 960fps. However, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 will do slow-motion at 1080p at 240fps. The new Night Vision video capture with RAW AI Noise Reduction has been removed on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, as well.

This all really shows you how Qualcomm is stripping out some features, lowering clock speeds, and using an older modem to help make this a cheaper chipset. But is that worth the lower price? We’ll have to see when phones with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 launch, in the coming months.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 brings on-device Generative AI to the masses

One of the new features that Qualcomm is really pushing with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is on-device Generative AI. With this new processor, you’ll be able to create original content from spoken, written, or image prompts in mere moments with an on-device Gen AI assistant at your command.

Additionally, Photo Expansion will allow you to generate content beyond a photo’s frame, blending beautifully with your original capture. There’s also support for multi-modal AI models across many different use cases.

The new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 does support a lot of the popular Gen AI models right now, with over 30 large language models (LLMs) being supported, as well as Large Vision Models (LVMs). This includes Baichuan-7B, Llama 2, and Gemini Nano.

Snapdragon Elite Gaming is on-board

Qualcomm has been branding a lot of its features as of late, including Snapdragon Elite Gaming, which is going to provide you with some hyper-realistic mobile gaming on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. This includes real-time hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing, which takes realism to new heights and keeps you fully engaged with authentic lighting, shadows, and reflections.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 also does support Quad HD+ displays at up to 144Hz refresh rate. Giving you razor-sharp resolution and smooth graphics.

When will Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 phones launch?

As usual, Qualcomm is not saying anything specific about phones with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 launching, but we do have a handful of names of companies releasing phones with this chipset “in the coming months”.

According to Qualcomm, HONOR, iQOO, realm, Redmi, and Xiaomi will be launching phones with this new chipset very soon. They have not mentioned what specific devices we are getting from these companies with Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.

However, HONOR has been teasing the Magic6 Ultimate as of late, which might be their Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 phone, but we’re betting on them sticking with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for that one.