Qualcomm's More Affordable Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Still Boasts AI Smarts

Flagship phones are shipping with numerous generative AI-based features this year, and now their more affordable counterparts appear poised to join them. Today, Qualcomm announced a less powerful version of its flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 system on a chip. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 lacks the fastest clock speeds of its predecessor, as well as its top-tier modem, and advanced video capture capabilities, but retains many of its key features—including generative AI, gaming chops, high-end sound, and camera features. 

Slower Clock Speeds 

Like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the 8s Gen 3 is powered by Qualcomm’s Kyro CPU. Both versions of the chip have 64-bit architecture and one prime core, but Qualcomm dialed the top clock speed of that core down to 3.0GHz on the 8s Gen 3 from its top speed of 3.4GHz on the 8 Gen 3. 

The 8s Gen 3 has four performance cores with speeds up to 2.8GHz and three efficiency cores at 2.0GHz. In comparison, the 8 Gen 3 has five performance cores with faster speeds of 3.2GHz and two efficiency cores that go up to 2.3GHz. This core rearrangement should give the 8s Gen 3 a slight edge when it comes to device battery life.

Qualcomm did not provide guidance on how the chip will perform compared to the 8 Gen 3 on measurement tools like benchmarks.

AI for the Masses

The focus of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, like its sibling, is generative AI. Qualcomm’s AI engine is essentially unchanged from the 8 Gen 3, and includes Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU, Kryo CPU, and Hexagon NPU. These are the units that power on-device generative AI features, along with an always-sensing ISP, improved mobile gaming, enhanced connectivity, and better lossless HD sound. The chip is trained on over 30 large language models, including Baichuan-7B, Llama 2, and Gemini Nano.

Like the 8 Gen 3, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 will offer the ability to create AI content directly on your phone using spoken, written, or image prompts. It will also be able to use AI to enhance photos by creating content outside of the photo’s frame. The cameras in phones that ship with the 8s Gen 3 will be able to use AI to optimize up to 12 layers of photos or videos in real-time in order to help make the images as good as possible. 

Qualcomm’s Spectra Triple Cognitive ISP allows the camera to improve low-light performance, speed up facial unlocking capabilities, and capture clear photos at up to 200MP. The 8s Gen 3 does lose a few things. Phones with the 8s Gen 3 will not be able to record 8K HDR video, 4K video at 120fps, or night vision video with RAW AI noise reduction. These features are generally reserved for the most expensive devices. Nixing them from the feature mix will allow phone makers to drop prices a bit.

The 8s Gen 3 brings AI to mobile gaming with real-time ray tracing, which creates more realistic lighting and shadows. The chip won’t be able to upscale game scenes to 8K like the 8 Gen 3 can, but phones using the new chip can utilize a Quad HD+ display with up a refresh rate up to 144Hz. 

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The chip relies on AI to enhance its 5G modem, though the Snapdragon X70 modem found on the 8s Gen 3 is slightly older than the X75 modem found in the 8 Gen 3. Still, the X70 is no slouch, offering the latest 3GPP Release 17 5G enhancements, while the FastConnect 7800 connectivity system reaches speeds of up to 5.8Gbps on Wi-Fi 7. 

Last, the 8s Gen 3 comes with the same sound capabilities found on the 8 Gen 3, meaning that you’ll get stronger Bluetooth connectivity, along with support for lossless audio and Auracast, and reduced speaker distortion at high volumes.

The new chip will appear in phones from manufacturers such as Honor, Xiaomi, and more, with the first phones set to launch later this month.