During the Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii, Qualcomm officially presented the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and the Snapdragon S7 Pro Gen 1 audio chip.
It is clear that the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will power all flagship smartphones for most of 2024. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is 30% more efficient and 20% more effective than the currently used 2nd generation system. How is the new system constructed? The new Snapdragon - built in 4 nm lithography - is based on the main Cortex-X4 core clocked at up to 3.3 GHz, five additional Cortex A720 cores clocked at up to 3.2 GHz and two energy-saving Cortex A520 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz. Additionally, there is an Adreno 750 graphics chip, a 5G modem for the sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands, and Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 modules. The processor can work with LPDDR5x 4800 MHz operating memory with a capacity of up to 24 GB. This is what we will see in the top flagships of the upcoming season. The processor, of course, has extensive artificial intelligence with a built-in AI engine and a new, faster NPU, as well as support for Ray Tracing and a number of photo and video editing solutions. We will see the new processor soonest in:
- Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Pro
- OnePlus 12
- Realme GT 5 Pro
- Vivo X100 series
- Oppo X series
- RedMagic 9
- ZTE (probably another Axon)
- Meizu 21
- iQOO 12
Qualcomm also introduced a new audio chip, Snapdragon S7 Pro Gen 1. Thanks to it, wireless headphones will be able to use not only Bluetooth connectivity, but also micro-power Wi-Fi. It will provide a much better operating range, but will also allow for the transmission of much larger amounts of data - which in turn will improve the sound quality and reduce latency.
