Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors are powering nearly all of the best Android phones in 2023, with the semiconductor giant set to unveil its latest and greatest chipset – arguably the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 – at the annual Snapdragon Summit later this year.
Qualcomm usually uses this summit to discuss its role in shaping the future of mobile, automotive, audio and mixed reality experiences, meaning we’ll likely get a better picture of how future flagship phones like Samsung, OnePlus and Xiaomi can perform Too.
We’ve rounded up all the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 news and rumors below, including details on its specs, release date, and devices where the chipset could be coming soon.
To the point
- What is this? It is expected to be Qualcomm’s new flagship mobile chipset
- when is it coming out? Rumor has it that in Q4 2023 (i.e. between October and December)
- How much does it cost? As with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Qualcomm is likely to sell the 8 Gen 3 directly to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). However, flagship phones expected to use it will cost north of $800 / £700 / AU$1,200.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: release date
Qualcomm typically showcases its new and improved Snapdragon processors at its annual Snapdragon Summit in November, and we expect the manufacturer to keep that course in 2023 with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
That said, although the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was unveiled in November and began rolling out to phones as early as December, the leaked Digital Chat Station (via Notebook Check (opens in a new tab)) has hinted that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could arrive a bit earlier this year. However, they do not mention specific dates, so we still expect the chipset to be released between October and December.
As such, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 may be announced earlier than November 2023, the announcement is unlikely to have many (if any) implications for the phones expected to use the new chipset. We could potentially see a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-equipped device as early as October this year – which wouldn’t be possible if the chipset didn’t land by November – but there aren’t many obvious candidates this month.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: news and leaks
As we are still some time away from the expected release of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the fourth quarter of 2023, news and leaks regarding the processor in development are few and far between.
Many phones using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 – such as those in the Samsung Galaxy S23 and OnePlus 11 lines – have also been launched recently, so it’s hard to speculate on the capabilities of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 when we’re just starting to get a grip on those of its predecessor.
That said, we’ve already heard some rumors about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Two Twitter leaks in particular – RGcloudS (opens in a new tab) AND Revengus (opens in a new tab) – claim to have seen detailed performance specs for the upcoming chipset, although the pair disagree on the numbers.
Both speculators suggest that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be manufactured by TSMC using the latter’s 4nm process node, but while RGcloudS expects the upcoming chipset to feature one high-performance Cortex-X4 core, four performance cores, and three performance cores – configuration similar to Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 – Revegnus proposes a 1-5-2 configuration.
Snapdragon gen 3 is indeed strong Bigger leap over previous generation Apparently the main contributing factor was the arm itself especially the X4 and 1,4,3 configurations which are pretty much confirmed gen3 for the galaxy will beat bionic frequency 17 “on paper” up to 3.7+GHz for mobileMarch 3, 2023
For more details, RGcloudS claims that this high-performance core will be clocked at 3.7 GHz, which would be a 15% speed increase over the 3.2 GHz Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. However, Revegnus expects the 8 Gen 3 the main core boasts the same 3.2GHz clock speed as its predecessor, albeit with the addition of an Adreno 750 GPU and a Snapdragon X75 5G modem (which they say will bring a 20% improvement in energy efficiency).
Snapdragon 8gen3 rumors TSMC N4P 1+5+2 architecture, 3.75GHz mega-core Cortex-X4 Five 3.0GHz large Cortex-A720 core Two 2.0GHz small Cortex-A520 core than Snapdragon 8gen2 more than one performance core, less than core energy efficiency. The graphics card is an Adreno 750. pic.twitter.com/MTGOtnL46EMarch 9, 2023
For obvious reasons, it’s hard for us to judge the accuracy of both claims at this stage, but what’s clear is that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will deliver Some in the form of significant performance improvements over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
As for the phones we expect to use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Samsung Galaxy S24 and its premium siblings will almost certainly top the list.
In the aforementioned tweet, RGcloudS claims that Samsung’s next flagship devices will once again boast a Galaxy-specific version of Qualcomm’s latest chipset, which they say will actually beat the upcoming Apple A17 Bionic “on paper”.
In other words, phones from the Samsung Galaxy S24 line – which we expect to launch early next year – could be faster than the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro and the widely rumored iPhone 15 Ultra. Of course, these speed gains are likely to be negligible, but even so, the leak bodes well for the performance of future Android devices.
We also expect Samsung to offer Qualcomm chipsets across all Samsung Galaxy S24 lines. Years before the release of the S23 series, the company used Snapdragon or Samsung Exynos processors in its flagship phones, depending on the region where customers bought them. The lack of processor discrepancy between regions is a key reason why we rate Samsung’s latest phones so highly, so we think it would be foolish for the company to undo all this good work with its next line of Galaxy S series devices.
Other than the above, we haven’t heard much else about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but we’ll be updating this page as we get new leaks, news, and rumors.