Qualcomm unveils new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chip – as a flagship, but slightly weaker

Qualcomm has introduced the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor, which offers flagship features, but its performance is slightly lower than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Endgadget reports.

It is built using a 4-nm process technology with a 1+4+3 core configuration (one main ARM Cortex X4 core with a clock speed of 3.0 GHz, four performance cores with a clock speed of 2.8 GHz, and three efficient cores with a clock speed of 2.0 GHz).

At the same time, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is built with 1+5+2 cores. The Model S replaces the performance core with an efficiency core. The main core of the flagship chip is also slightly faster at 3.4 GHz.

The chip uses the previous generation X70 5G modem, although it still offers Wi-Fi 7 support. You also get hardware ray tracing acceleration in games.

Also, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 will have multimodal generative AI that can run large language models (LLMs) with 10 billion parameters, which means support for models like Gemini Nano as well as AI assistants. However, it lacks some of the AI features found in the flagship version.

The new chip adds another subcategory to Qualcomm’s lineup, especially if you count the last-generation chips that are still in use in devices like the OnePlus 12R.

The chip will be available in Honor, iQOO, Realme, Redmi, and Xiaomi smartphones to be announced later this month. It is not yet known how much the new chip will reduce the price of new phones compared to flagships.