Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 chipset, a more budget-friendly alternative designed to deliver robust performance without the higher cost of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Despite their naming similarities, there are noteworthy differences between the two.
At first glance, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 may appear nearly as powerful as the flagship chipset because of the almost identical name. But there’s plenty of differences, as the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 has been slightly scaled back for affordability. Qualcomm targets this chipset at cost-effective devices that still demand high-end performance.
To start, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 features one less high-performance core than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 but is manufactured using the same 4nm technology. The newer chipset includes a prime Cortex-X4 CPU core running at 3GHz, four Cortex A-720 cores at 2.8GHz, and three Cortex A-520 cores clocked at 2GHz.
In total, that’s five performance CPU cores and three efficiency cores, compared to the six performance cores and two efficiency cores of the flagship chipset. Additionally, the GPU in the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is an Adreno 735, which is weaker than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s Adreno 750.

Another area where the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 differs is memory speed. It only supports up to 24GB of LPDDR5X RAM at 4200MHz, a slight step down from the 4800MHz supported by the high-end chip. In terms of video capabilities, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3’s Image Signal Processor (ISP) can handle video recording up to 4K resolution at 60 frames per second in HDR, without the 8K at 30FPS or 4K at 120FPS support found in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
The 8s also features the older Snapdragon X70 modem, which offers a peak cellular download speed of 5Gbps, half the 10Gbps peak speed supported by the X75 modem in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
While the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 needed to cut some corners for cost-efficiency, it remains a formidable chipset likely to excel in gaming and daily tasks. In fact, the differences may not be starkly noticeable in everyday use. With the launch of the new chipset, we can expect smartphones equipped with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 to hit the market soon.
Processor Name | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 |
Fabrication | 4nm TSMC | 4nm TSMC |
CPU | 1x Cortex-X4 @ 3.3GHz (Prime) 3x Cortex-720 @ 3.15GHz (Big) 2x Cortex-720 @ 2.96GHz (Big) 2x Cortex-A520 @ 2.3GHz (Small) | 1x Cortex-X4 @ 3.0GHz (Prime) 4x Cortex-A720 @ 2.8GHz (Big) 3x Cortex-A520 @ 2.0GHz (Small) |
GPU | Adreno 750 | Adreno 735 |
RAM | LPDDR5X (4800MHz) | LPDDR5X (4200MHz) |
Storage | UFS 4.0 | UFS 4.0 |
USB | USB 3.1 Gen 2, 10Gbps | USB 3.1 Gen 2, 10Gbps |
Video | 8K HDR @ 30fps 4K @ 120fp | 4K HDR @ 60fps 1080p @ 240fps |
ISP | Triple 18-Bit Spectra | Triple 18-Bit Spectra |
Cellular Modem | X75 5G | X70 5G |