To release their phones, smartphone makers depend on the schedule set by Qualcomm, the designer of the most popular high-end chip. For the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm would consider further advancing the schedule to October. What to imagine an even more advanced release of the future Galaxy S24 or Xiaomi 14.
This is news that will surprise regulars of the smartphone release calendar. According to the leaker Digital Chat Station, certainly the most reliable to officiate on Weibo, Qualcomm’s next high-end chip could push its calendar a little further.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was already unveiled earlier than its predecessor, on November 16, 2022, instead of December 1, 2021 for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. For the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the San Diego company would target October or earlier November .
A tendency to move forward among manufacturers
If this appears very early, one could argue that this is the direction of the story. After all, the Xiaomi 13 was announced for the Chinese market on December 19, 2022, 11 days before its predecessor. The Galaxy S23s were released on February 1st, 8 short days before the S22s. The OnePlus 11 wins the award with a presentation on January 4, 2022.
With such a race to see who gets their phone out first, we can therefore imagine manufacturers pushing in that direction and Qualcomm following with the wind. One thing is for sure, if the chip comes out sooner, some manufacturers won’t resist the urge to unveil their precious products in front of their little friends. We could therefore imagine seeing the Galaxy S24, Xiaomi 14 and other OnePlus 12 even sooner.
A very good 2023 vintage
Keep in mind that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 seems to be a resounding success from the first tests we’ve run. More powerful, free from heating problems like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that arrived on all Galaxy S (allowing to regain a very large market share in the high-end).
Given this success, therefore, we can imagine that the further development of this calendar would hide Qualcomm’s ambition to spend this year releasing a chip marked with a plus. Traditionally, the Snapdragon at the beginning of the year is always followed by an overclocked version in the second half of the year. The Snapdragon 888 is followed by the 888 Plus, the 8 Gen 1 by the 8+ Gen 1. What if there was no 8 Gen 2?
Qualcomm reference design with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 // Source: Frandroid
Of course, that’s just speculation on our part at the moment, but given the excellent performance of the 8 Gen 2, releasing an 8+ Gen 2 seems a bit pointless.
Last year, the 8+ Gen 1 served more as a firefighter against the seething 8 Gen 1 hit by overheating, even changing the founder from one chip to another to move from Samsung to TSMC. The 8 Gen 2 doesn’t suffer from such problems, releasing a Plus chip seems less necessary. If it did come out, it would certainly settle for an exit on a few ultra-high-end or gaming models.
What to expect from a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
According to NoteBookCheck, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could expect a 25% performance increase on the CPU. The media then speculated on 20% more energy efficiency.
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