No product comes to market these days without touting the advantages of artificial intelligence, and this is especially true of the mobile chipsets that power smartphones. The latest example is the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 system-on-chip that Qualcomm announced today (October 24) at its annual technology summit in Hawaii.

Qualcomm and its Snapdragon silicon are no strangers to AI. In particular, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, released last year, touted AI improvements, including a new AI Engine. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, however, Qualcomm has added support for multimodal generative AI for the first time, which should open up a new world of experiences with devices powered by Qualcomm's latest silicon.

In addition to these AI improvements, the latest Snapdragon boasts the usual enhancements to both the CPU and GPU, which should lead to better overall performance. Qualcomm has also added gaming-specific features to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, as well as new camera capabilities thanks to an improved ISP (Image Signal Processor).

How these additional features will benefit smartphones in the real world will soon become clear. According to Qualcomm, devices powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 are expected to begin shipping "within the next few weeks."

Handset manufacturers such as Asus, OnePlus, RedMagic, Sony, and ZTE plan to adopt the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the United States handset releases, a trend that is expected to continue in 2024 when the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be featured in new Samsung Galaxy S24 models (at least those released in the US and Asia). It is also possible that the Galaxy S24 Ultra will rely on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 regardless of which markets it is sold in.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could be found in so many great Android phones coming out next year that even those who don't normally pay attention to mobile silicon essentials will find the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 features worth paying attention to. Here's what we know so far about Qualcomm's latest system-on-chip.

Many of the AI improvements in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 center on generative AI, where algorithms are used to create everything from new images to text and more. Specifically, the AI engine in this new chipset is designed with on-device generative AI at the forefront, so much so that Qualcomm executives have called the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 a "giant in on-device intelligence."

As such, the AI engine currently supports large-scale language models (LLM), language vision models (LVM), and transformer network-based automatic speech recognition (ASR). All of this is done on the phone itself, with no cloud involved, and supports up to 10 billion parameters.

The LLM model in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can run up to 20 tokens per second, so what this means is faster responding on-device assistance. According to Qualcomm, the on-device generative AI also generates images in just one second.

Qualcomm's sensing hubs, which collect and analyze data from all around us, are particularly benefiting from the additional support of generative AI. Users can expect more personalized responses from on-device assistants that can leverage data such as location, favorite activities, and fitness levels monitored by the sensing hub. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 also delivers 3.5x faster processing speed for the Sensing Hub

. It is also 40% more efficient and should consume less power.

Qualcomm's focus on on-device intelligence could help it stand out from rival chips like the Apple chip that powers the iPhone lineup. Apple is reportedly spending $1 billion a year on generative AI research, but it is still a long way off and may be for the foreseeable future before it is actually reflected in Apple's products. generative AI in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset will lead to a unique cell phone experience, it could give it an edge over devices like the iPhone 15 and next year's iPhone 16.

AI capabilities will also influence the Spectra ISP in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to assist with both image capture and photo processing. To improve image capture, the new chipset adds support for Dolby HDR photo capture and its 10-bit color depth and ability to show over a billion shades. In addition, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered phones can use AI to generate images on the fly, and Qualcomm is working with TruePic on an encrypted seal that shows which photos have been modified with AI-generated content.

Other photo features in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 include semantic segmentation, which divides images into 12 layers that can be optimized to enhance detail and vibrancy. In addition, the Video Object Eraser feature developed by Arcsoft can remove unwanted people and objects from video footage, similar to Google Pixel's Magic Eraser.

Mobile phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can use the Photo Enlargement feature to enlarge the area in a photo; the Vlogger's View tool allows users to capture video from both the front and main cameras simultaneously.

While AI may be the focus, Qualcomm has improved the performance of the Kryo CPU and Adreno GPU for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. While the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 may have shown impressive performance gains, the latest iPhone 15 Pro model, this is important because it still falls short of the A17 Pro in the model.

The Kryo CPU in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has a prime core capable of speeds up to 3.2 GHz; the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 had only four, but this chipset adds a fifth performance core.

These should result in a 30% increase in CPU performance, given that the iPhone 15 Pro Max's score in the Geekbench multi-core test was 42% higher than the Galaxy S23 Ultra's score, and this performance improvement is in line with Qualcomm's top chipset and the A17 Pro should help close the gap. However, the performance gap may not be completely closed.

The Adreno GPU also saw a 25% performance increase with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Since phones with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 came pretty close to iPhones with the A17 in graphics tests, it is possible that next year's best Android phones could outperform the iPhone. [Last year's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset also offers strong power management, and many phones with this silicon have made our Best Smartphone Battery Life list, which showcases the devices with the best times in our battery tests. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is expected to achieve a 20% improvement in power efficiency with its Kryo CPU and a 10% power reduction with its Adreno GPU.

The Adreno GPU in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 also promises a 40% improvement in ray tracing, but that is not the only benefit the new silicon could bring to mobile gaming The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, hardware-accelerated ray tracing, as well as support for global illumination through Unreal Engine 5.2.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 devices are capable of 240 frames per second gaming and 240 Hz refresh rates, making this chipset a likely candidate for the best gaming phones coming next year. The new Adreno Frame Motion Engine can double the frame rate without affecting power consumption. The Snapdragon Game Super Resolution feature can also upscale games to 8K resolution on an external monitor.

On the audio side, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 supports 24-bit 96 kHz lossless music via Bluetooth, and the chipset supports the Snapdragon X75 modem and Wi-Fi 7. The X75 was announced earlier this year and uses AI to better manage the transmission and reception of 5G beams to and from smartphones. [To see how device makers are taking advantage of the AI capabilities built into the new silicon, you'll need to get a phone with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Getting a phone with the new chipset will also allow us to see how the new Snapdragon performs compared to Apple's mobile chips.

What is clear at this stage, however, is that the overreaching role of AI in technology will not diminish anytime soon.

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