The new chip is intended exclusively for the so-called killers of high-end smartphones

The new chip is labeled Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. Yes, the small s is important, otherwise the designation is the same as the flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip. Which is currently the most powerful mobile processor on the market. There is of course a difference between the two chips, the weaker novelty has a slightly different architecture, a lower core frequency, and the 5G modem or graphics unit is weaker.

The reason is simple, the new chip is supposed to face competition from MediaTek, which significantly thickens the portfolio in the upper middle class. And that’s where the novelty belongs, it’s widely called the killer chip for high-end smartphones. Today, these are upper middle-class models with inflated equipment, but with certain concessions against the top models. The new chip will then provide them with sufficient performance.

In recent years, Qualcomm had a problem when it was unable to offer mobile phone manufacturers a suitable chip for such devices. Sometimes he sent them to the competition, sometimes it was solved with a year-old flagship chip and sometimes with a top-of-the-line processor, which, however, reduced the exclusivity of the top models at significantly higher prices.

It’s not entirely clear how it will perform exactly. So far, there is practically no mobile phone with a new chip on the market. So the Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro has already been introduced, but there are no benchmark results yet. They leaked the upcoming Realme GT Neo 6 with a result of 1.85 million in AnTuTu, but the number must be taken with a grain of salt. The full-bodied Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has results in AnTuTu above two million points.

The difference is not fundamental, so the new chip could be a hit. For Qualcomm and for smartphone manufacturers. In addition to the above models, the Motorola Edge 50 Pro should also receive the new chip, which should be presented in mid-April. Other phones will follow, and apparently there shouldn’t be a lot of them.

Compared to the flagship 8 Gen 3, the “s” model has a slightly different architecture: 1+4+3 versus 1+3+2+2. The most powerful core is the same, the difference is in the number of additional power cores, the novelty has one less and, conversely, one more of the energy-saving ones. The cores themselves are the same, but at a lower frequency. For the super-powerful Cortex-X4, it is at 3 GHz for the novelty and 3.3 GHz for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.

It then has five powerful Cortex-A720 cores, three at a frequency of 3.15 GHz and two at a frequency of 2.96 GHz. The cheaper novelty has four of these cores and all at a frequency of 2.8 GHz. Here the difference is most striking. The novelty has three economic Cortex-A520 cores at a frequency of 2 GHz, while the more powerful relative has two at a frequency of 2.3 GHz.

The new 8s Gen 3 chip also has a weaker Adreno G735 graphics unit, the stronger model has the new Adreno G750. The difference is also in the 5G modem, the novelty has the X70 5G chip, the top processor uses the X75 5G chip. Weaker options are also available in the case of video recording, the new processor supports a maximum of 4K HDR, a more powerful processor up to 8K HDR.

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor will probably first be seen on the Czech market in the case of the Motorola Edge 50 Pro, which could go on sale sometime in May.