Qualcomm's 2023 mobile flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, is off to a flying start. The chipset has received appreciation from smartphone consumers around the world, who have praised its excellent performance improvements and impressive battery life, especially on Samsung's Galaxy S23 series. As if that wasn't enough, recent rumors indicate that this is just the beginning for Qualcomm, and the 8 Gen 2's successor will be even more incredible.
Over the weekend, renowned leaker RGcloudS took to Twitter to reveal details about the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The chipset is expected to power flagships from various companies, including the Galaxy S24 lineup, that will release in 2024, setting the stage for Qualcomm to compete with Apple's lucrative A-series processors. If the information is reliable, Qualcomm appears to be looking for ways to leverage its successes this year to give Android devices a competitive edge against iPhones.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could smash records with 3.7GHz CPU core
Rumor has it that the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is set to make a splash, with its single high-performance Cortex-X4 core said to be clocked at 3.7GHz. Also, just like its predecessor (the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 might come with four additional performance cores (running at a lower frequency than the Cortex-X4 core) and three efficiency cores to ensure optimum performance for all sorts of use cases.
If the rumors of a 3.7GHz clock speed prove to be accurate, that would mean an impressive 15% boost from the 3.2GHz clock speed of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It would also be significantly faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 edition optimized for the Galaxy S23 phones; that one boasts a top clock speed of 3.36GHz.
Record-smashing clock speeds might not be most important agenda for Samsung fans
It's not a secret that the Galaxy S23 flagships, especially the Ultra model, bring some powerful improvements over their predecessors, all thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. And it looks like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could dial up the notch even further, although it remains to be seen if Samsung will work with Qualcomm on a unique variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 dedicated to Galaxy smartphones or just use the standard version.
The biggest question for Samsung fans, however, will be whether the company will exclusively use Qualcomm's chip for the Galaxy S24 series or if it will bring back Exynos chips for some markets. Rumors currently suggest that it will be the former, and that is probably a good idea if Samsung intends to build on the amazing experience that you get on a Galaxy S23, S23+, or S23 Ultra.
