There are two new SoCs that are making the rounds that you must know about and I want us to discuss them. These are the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.
A Brief Backstory
So before we proceed, let’s do a little bit of a backstory to set the stage.
In the not so distant past, when it came to SoCs, we had one prominent one from each company which was supposed to be the best. The rest were low end. Back then, Qualcomm had the Snapdragon 800 series and the 200 series. This was very much in line with the thought processes of the time. You were either getting a high end phone or a low end one. There was no in-between.
MediaTek Vs Qualcomm
However, the push from MediaTek into a position of uncontested Midrange supremacy forced everyone into reshaping their thought process. Qualcomm have always tried to pass it off as providing customers with more options, but the deep thinkers amongst us should see past that bullshit rhetoric.
The truth is MediaTek made a lot of money. So much money that they went from upstarts to initiating the ill-fated and ill-advised Helio X series in a bid to challenge Qualcomm and Samsung. It may have failed but Qualcomm quickly got the memo. Samsung (Exynos) and Huawei (Kirin) could fall back on phone sales and Apple (Bionic) was a beast in its own right. But Qualcomm was in a precarious situation as Snapdragon SoC sales made up the bulk of its income.
If the sales of Snapdragon processors tanked because of an upstart rival like MediaTek, then they would be in serious trouble. This quickly led to the creation of the Snapdragon 600 and later on 700 series as late as 2018 here.
Qualcomm didn’t stop there, they have relentlessly made sure that their SoC are optimized for everything from games to cameras, from CPU-intensive apps to just regular tasks.
MediaTek rebrands to Dimensity
But their old rival, MediaTek, didn’t stay down for long. They rebounded with the Helio G90T and have gone on to rebrand their SoCs into the much more visible and respected Dimensity name. So much so that when you take Helio G99, speed it up a little and add a 5G modem, it transforms into a much more respectable Dimensity 6080 and everyone wants to buy.
But the Midrange war has largely been abandoned. The fight has moved up to the high end SoCs. This is mostly due to, again, you guessed it, MediaTek.
MediaTek’s encroachment into this area must have been very alarming for Qualcomm. MediaTek started by offering what we would now know as Flagship killers but have now fully graduated into making super flagships of their own.
I would imagine that MediaTek quickly understood that a direct challenge on Qualcomm ‘s flagship would not yield the desired results. As a result, they decided to create an artificial tier just below the flagship level. They named this the Dimensity 8000 series.
The Dimensity 8000 series currently has 4 SoCs which include:
- Dimensity 8300
- Dimensity 8200
- Dimensity 8100
- Dimensity 8000
The Dimensity 8000 and 8100 were very good alternatives to the Snapdragon 870 and 860 and the market reception was very good. So when MediaTek upped their game to the Dimensity 8200, Qualcomm quickly replied with the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2.
Dimensity 8300
MediaTek soon made the 7+ Gen 2 obsolete by dropping the Dimensity 8300 late last year. The Dimensity 8300 for context is on the level of the Apple Bionic 15 and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. This SoC has begun turning heads in the industry and winning people over to MediaTek.
The Poco X6 Pro utilizing this SoC has been selling out like water with users praising its performance. Its only shortcoming is its possible heating. Otherwise it’s very good.
Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
Qualcomm had to reply and they didn’t just drop one SoC, they dropped two! These two are the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. Both of these SoCs completely leave the Dimensity 8300 in the dust.
These two SoCs are redefining what the term Flagship Killer means. So let’s quickly go through their specs and see what the noise is all about.
| Specs | Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 | Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU cores |
|
|
| GPU | Adreno 732 | Adreno 735 |
| Process | 4nm TSMC | 4nm TSMC |
| ISA | ARMv9.2 | ARMv9.2 |
| Bench |
|
|
| RAM | LPDDR5X (4266MHz) 24GB | LPDDR5X (4266MHz) 24GB |
| Storage | UFS 4.0 | UFS 4.0 |
| ISP | Spectra | Spectra |
| NPU | Qualcomm Hexagon | Qualcomm Hexagon |
| Camera | 200MP | 320MP |
| Video | 4K @60fps | 8K @30fps |
| Display | 3840 x 2160p | 3840 x 2160p |
| Network |
|
|
| Bluetooth | 5.4 | 5.4 |
| WiFi | 7 | 7 |
CPU performance
Both the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 use the same set of CPU cores. These are the:
- 1x Cortex X4
- 4x Cortex A720
- 3x Cortex A520
These CPU cores are all cutting edge. They are the latest builds from ARM. These are actually the same as what you’ll find on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship. The key difference here is that the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 have lower peak clock speeds (2.8GHz and 3.0GHz respectively) than the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. These CPUs are more than enough to take care of any task you want to handle.
When it comes to peak performance, the 7+ Gen 3 matches (and beats) the Dimensity 8300 and is on the same level as the A15 Bionic. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 on the other hand beats all of these ones on performance and can comfortably handle flagships like last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Dimensity 9200.
It would be interesting to see how MediaTek is going to respond to this one.
GPU performance
The GPUs are where the thin veneer of the flagship state falls off. These SoCs both use Adreno 730 variants from 2022. The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 uses the Adreno 732 whilst the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 uses the Adreno 735 (both are faster versions of the Adreno 730).
The GPU on the Snapdragon 8S Gen 3 supports hardware Ray tracing whilst the one on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 lacks the feature. Whilst these are very fantastic GPUs. They’re not exactly flagship quality. The CPU cores may be flagships but the GPUs are some way behind that. They’re from Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 series from 2022 do they’re a bit dated.
Memory and Storage
Both SoCs share the same LPDDR5X RAM running at 4200MHz with capacity for up to 24GB of RAM. They also both support up to UFS 4.0 storage with support for up to 1TB memory. These are all cutting edge.
Camera and Video
Both of them support cameras of up to 200MP but for the video, the 8s Gen 3 can do 8K@30fps and 4k@120fps while the 7+ Gen 3 is stuck at 4k@60fps.
Network and connectivity
In this area, the difference between both SoCs become very apparent. The 8s Gen 3 uses a flagship grade Snapdragon X70 5G modem with support for 4G LTE Cat.22, Sub-6GHz and mm wave 5G, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
The 7+ Gen 3 on the other hand uses a much more modest Snapdragon X63 5G with support for 4G LTE Cat.18, Sub-6GHz and mm wave 5G, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
Battery life and optimization
They’re both built on TSMC ‘s 4nm process and just like the Snapshot 7+ Gen 2 before them, should enjoy good battery life and excellent support for softer developers all over the world.
Conclusion
So the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 are both high end SoCs that will offer top tier performance. The Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 is the more affordable option and it improves on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is more popular and can be thought of as a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 lite but it’s also more pricey. They’re both solid and you can hardly go wrong with any of them.
So that’s all you need to know on the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 and the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. As always I’ll be available for comments, questions and discussions. Cheers.
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