Qualcomm shows which SoC will be in the premium phones of tomorrow. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is about the same but better than its predecessor, with an extra dose of AI hype.

Qualcomm launches the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This mobile processor succeeds the Gen 2 and, like its predecessors, is designed for the most powerful and expensive smartphones at the top end of the Android phone manufacturer segment. The chip is said to be around 30 percent more powerful than previous editions, which theoretically means your smartphone will get more horsepower with less power consumption.

CPU and GPU

Qualcomm uses a slightly different CPU layout than usual. The new chip features a 1-5-2 configuration: a large and powerful computing core (the Arm Cortex X4) is supported by five medium-sized cores and two small efficiency cores. The Cortex X4 has a clock speed of 3.3 GHz and the efficiency cores have a frequency of 2.3 GHz. The five average cores have different clock frequencies: three can climb to 3.2 GHz, two stay at 3 GHz. This mix of cores and frequencies must ensure that workloads always run as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

Qualcomm does not give the exact name of the medium and efficiency cores and a type number for the Adreno GPU is also missing. This is noticeable since the GPU is one of the strengths of Qualcomm’s mobile chips. The Adreno is said to deliver 25 percent better performance than the GPU in previous editions.

AI on your smartphone

The lack of detail on the CPU and GPU is due to a somewhat questionable focus on AI at launch. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has a hexagon NPU on board and Qualcomm makes more of it than it is. Such an NPU is fantastic for accelerating in-camera AI functions, for example, but we believe few people are interested in actually running AI models locally on their smartphone.

Qualcomm disagrees, seeing a future where smartphone users suddenly run locally generative AI models on their small device with limited battery life, when of course such things would run better in the cloud or on a PC. The NPU opens the door to fun but non-essential photo and video editing features that can be fun. Hopefully, the developers of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 have focused enough on the CPU and GPU that 99 percent of smartphone users will actually feel improvements.