Qualcomm’s first cellular chip with on-device generative AI, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, launched late final 12 months to energy high-end Android telephones in 2024. Now Qualcomm is introducing a brand new chip within the collection. The Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 goals to carry these top-tier options to midrange gadgets.
That is the primary “S” model of a chip that Qualcomm has launched, and it affords generative AI at a lower cost. The corporate described the 8S Gen 3 as a bridge between the top-of-the-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which powered final 12 months’s premium Android telephones.
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However whereas the 8 Gen 3 powers telephones just like the Samsung Galaxy S24 collection and the OnePlus 12, each of that are priced at upward of $800, the 8S Gen 3 is supposed for handsets within the $500 to $800 vary. Xiaomi, Honor, Realme, Redmi and different producers will launch 8S Gen 3-powered telephones quickly, with the primary coming in a number of months.
Qualcomm’s objective is to trickle down premium options to cheaper telephones, most notably generative AI. The 8S Gen 3 is able to supporting 30 AI fashions, together with Meta’s Llama 2 and Google’s Gemini and over 10 billion parameters in AI, the identical because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The corporate famous that the 8S Gen 3’s generative AI options embrace some functions we have seen earlier than, like enhancing voice assistants and utilizing secure diffusion to generate pictures.
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Qualcomm beforehand mentioned that lower-tier chips constructed for extra inexpensive telephones, just like the beforehand introduced Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, would have a “swish degradation” of AI capabilities in comparison with the top-tier 8 Gen 3. The brand new chip’s prime efficiency is decrease than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This implies its AI capabilities are extra restricted, taking longer to generate pictures and phrases, and it lacks options like Quick Steady Diffusion and Speculative Decoding, that are supported in Qualcomm’s top-end chip.
Whereas we do not have benchmarks for the 8S Gen 3 but, its core processor clock speeds are decrease than the 8 Gen 3 and it would not have the top-of-the-line parts present in different Qualcomm chips. Its X70 modem is not as superior because the X75 modem within the 8 Gen 3, nevertheless it nonetheless helps Snapdragon Satellite tv for pc and Snapdragon Seamless, the corporate’s proprietary linked system ecosystem function.
Along with on-device generative AI, the chip helps different premium options like as much as 200-megapixel cameras and ray tracing for gaming, giving manufacturers an possibility for an up-to-date 8-series chip to place in additional inexpensive telephones. The 7 Gen 3 could also be comparable, however the 7-series chipsets could not get a brand new model yearly, Qualcomm mentioned.
Cellphone makers would possibly select the 8S chip for telephones that price between $500 and $800. At the moment firms use older chips on this worth vary. The Samsung Galaxy S24 FE makes use of a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
Whereas manufacturers usually choose the newest Snapdragon 8-series chip for his or her top-end telephones, with sub-premium telephones they typically go for older chips to save lots of on prices. For instance, final 12 months’s Samsung Galaxy S23 FE (which had a $600 launch worth) packs a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 reasonably than a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that appeared in different telephones of that 12 months. Presumably, manufacturers on this state of affairs may select the 8S Gen 3 as an alternative.
The 8S Gen 3 is one in all a rising variety of cellular chips with on-device generative AI, from Snapdragon’s choices to the MediaTek Dimensity 9300 and Dimensity 8300. We nonetheless have not seen many must-have generative AI options, however they might assist extra premium Android telephones distinguish themselves from the competitors.
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