Qualcomm has already set a date to announce what we assume will be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and it’s earlier than usual. Mark those calendars because Qualcomm’s last couple of chips have been great.
With the rebrand of the Snapdragon top tier chip to the “8 Gen” series, Qualcomm got off to a bit of a rough start. The original Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 didn’t impress in the performance department, causing Qualcomm to make a foundry switch from Samsung to TSMC mid-cycle in order to release the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. That chip, along with this year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, have been saviors in power efficiency alone.
The best example I can give of the difference is from last year’s Galaxy S22 (with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1) to this year’s Galaxy S23 (with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2). In our review, we noted the expectedly-poor battery life from the S22 and couldn’t come close to recommending anyone buy it, while the Galaxy S23 somehow has become my phone of choice, thanks to its small size and ridiculously good battery life. It’s night and day and we can’t help but assume it’s the switch to TSMC powering the improvement.
So, a date set for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is only big because it should mean an earlier arrival of Qualcomm’s best new chip. Assuming they haven’t switched things up again, I’m assuming this will be another power efficient beast that’ll soon power Samsung’s next Galaxy, as well as OnePlus’ and anyone else not named Google.
The Snapdragon Summit will play host once again to Qualcomm’s big reveal. The dates for this yearly Hawaiian boondoggle are October 24 through October 26.
For reference, the last several Snapdragon Summit events have happened in December or November.
// Qualcomm