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Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: Everything you need to know
Curious what makes Qualcomm's latest flagship SoC tick? Here's what's under the hood
These days, if you have one of the best Android flagships around, it's probably powered by one of two mobile chipsets: Google's in-house Tensor series, or a Snapdragon 8 SoC. As much as we love the Google Pixel 8 Pro, Qualcomm has been absolutely destroying this space lately, pushing ahead of the competition over the last year and looking to do it again with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Curious what makes this chipset tick? Here's everything you need to know about Qualcomm's latest launch.
Google Tensor G3: The complete guide to the Pixel 8's custom chip
Google's custom silicon goes big on AI features
Tensor is Google's custom processors for its Pixel phone and tablet lineup. The original Tensor chipset made its debut on the Pixel 6 series in 2021. The company followed up a year later with the much-improved Tensor G2 that still powers big chunks of the company's lineup, including the Google Pixel Fold and Pixel Tablet.
MediaTek’s new Dimensity 9200 chip is the flagship Snapdragon competitor we’ve been waiting for
There’s still very little chance your next phone will have one, though
Meaningful competition is frustratingly hard to come by in today's mobile landscape. That's a situation that's true across categories, from phones themselves, to the components that go into them — as time goes by, we end up with fewer players in the game, and correspondingly less choice. Qualcomm's the dominant force when it comes to SoCs, and while a few phone makers flirt with silicon of their own, it largely feels like they're doing so just to show that they can. But all along there's also been MediaTek, and while we're used to seeing its chips on lower-end phone hardware, last year's launch of the Dimensity 9000 attempted to put the company on real flagship footing. Now it's following that first big step with a second, more confident one, with the introduction of the new Dimensity 9200.
MediaTek's new Dimensity 1080 chip teases crazy-high-res camera support for even budget phones
You can think of it as a bit of a sidegrade to the Dimensity 920
MediaTek is actively working to get its silicon into more and more phones with its Dimensity chip lineup. But while it has full-fledged flagship chips like the Dimensity 9000, its mid-range and budget SoCs are some of the biggest workhorses around. The Dimensity 920 has been used in phones like the Xiaomi Mi 11i, the Realme 9 Pro Plus, and the Realme Narzo 50 Pro, but that chip was introduced well over a year ago — it's high time for some fresh blood. That's just what we're getting now, as MediaTek finally unveils the new Dimensity 1080.
Arm lawsuit throws a wrench in Qualcomm's custom-SoC plans
The conflict stems from Qualcomm's acquisition of Nuvia and its custom designs
The rise of smartphones has really driven the development of mobile-first processors, and we're increasingly seeing this kind of silicon replace older architectures, like Apple's been doing with its M1 chips in laptops and desktop computers, alike. This trend has not escaped Qualcomm's attention, and last year we learned about its plans to acquire chip-designer Nuvia, tapping into the company's expertise in developing custom cores to help give it a leg up over Arm's reference designs and improve upon its own custom efforts. While that sounded all sorts of promising for Qualcomm, apparently the deal has ruffled a few feathers back at Arm, and this week the company filed a lawsuit in response to the Nuvia acquisition.
Why Qualcomm and MediaTek will make 2022 a memorable year for smartphone chipsets
And, hopefully, a good one for consumers
Next year looks like it might be very exciting — when it comes to smartphones, anyway. The traditional logic would tell you that Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset will set the standard for flagship Android phones in 2022. But, for the first time in years, that’s not guaranteed. MediaTek is also ready with its own new big-boy chip in the Dimensity 9000, Google’s gone custom, Samsung’s bringing AMD GPUs to its in-house SoCs, and even OPPO is rumored to be working on its own SoC. It’s a smartphone chipset showdown. But will it be a silicon bloodbath, a boring and easy victory for the encumbent, or can customers expect something even better (if less dramatic)? There’s already evidence to be excited in the latest benchmarks.
The line between 'flagship' and mid-range just gets blurrier with Qualcomm's newest chip
The Snapdragon 780G jumps from 7nm to 5nm, matching the 888
Phones based on Qualcomm's 700-series Snapdragon processors have been a hit as of late, combining serious performance with surprising value. Today the company announced its most powerful entrant in the series, the Snapdragon 780G. Versus the 765G as seen in recent Pixels, the 780G uses a 5nm fabrication process, allowing for faster speeds and greater efficiency.
Google is gunning for faster hardware, whether or not you see it
That means doubling down on custom chips and making a big hire
Google is pushing harder on silicon investment and scaling down from what it can do with motherboards to focusing on systems-on-chips. Leading that effort will be Uri Frank who joins the company after two decades of custom chip design engineering and as an executive at Intel.
The Snapdragon 870 is nothing but a slightly tweaked 865 Plus
The new line could still prove to be significant going forward
Not too long ago, Qualcomm announced its latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 888. Today, the company is back with another new mobile platform, the Snapdragon 870. While the name implies that we're looking at a brand-new line, the new chip is actually nothing but a slightly tweaked Snapdragon 865 Plus.
Get familiar with the Exynos 2100, the not-Snapdragon going into the Galaxy S21
It's all equal until the comparisons come out
Samsung has announced its top-tier integrated mobile chipset for 2021, the 5nm Exynos 2100. As has been the case for the past several years, the silicon is expected to appear in next-generation Galaxy flagship devices in certain regions where the Snapdragon 888 from Qualcomm won't be seen.
Samsung has just announced a lower-end follow-up to its "first" in-house 5G-integrated chipset. The new Exynos 880 is probably destined for an even lower price point than the already mid-range 980, which will appear in the Galaxy A71 5G and A51 5G. Like its bigger brother, it doesn't support mmWave 5G, just sub-6 frequencies, and one phone that's using it has already been announced.
Today MediaTek has announced a slightly upgraded version of its Dimensity 1000 chipset, appropriately called the Dimensity 1000+. It's light on changes, with only a handful of improvements included.
MediaTek has just revealed a new gaming-oriented chipset for its G series: the Helio G85. Pricing isn't public, and plenty of the more interesting specs have yet to be revealed, but the new chip expands the company's gaming chipset lineup and smartphone manufacturer options for gaming devices.
Report claims Google plans its own chipset for Pixel phones as soon as 2021
'Whitechapel' is an 8-core ARM processor, designed with Samsung's help
According to a report today by Axios, Google has made "significant progress" in developing its own chipset for use in its Pixel phones — and, eventually, Chromebooks. Code-named "Whitechapel," the 8-core ARM chip was designed with Samsung's help, though it won't be ready for another year.
Following last year's Helio G90, MediaTek has just taken the wraps off two new smartphone chipsets for mobile gaming: the Helio G70 and G80. These chips are destined to hit India as soon as this month, with plenty of gaming-optimized specs for more affordably-priced gaming phones.
Qualcomm might be leading the charge towards 5G with new chipsets for premium and "Premium B" phones this year. But in many parts of the world where the transition from 4G will be especially slow to start, the chipmaker will also need to cater to people set to stick with LTE for the next while. It's at this juncture that the company introduces the Snapdragon 460, 662, and 720G SoCs.
Today MediaTek has formally revealed its latest mobile chipset, which packs an integrated 5G modem, 8-core design, and Wi-Fi 6 support, kicking off an all new "Dimensity" family of silicon. On paper, the latest Dimensity 1000 sounds like the first 5G-integrated chip MediaTek announced back in May of this year. But whether this is a rehash of that or not, there is one big twist this time around: MediaTek tells us we'll see phones running this new SoC land here in the USA.
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If you take a look at how gaming smartphones are comprised, you'll find that the OEM usually draws from off-the-shelf components and augments them with software or extra hardware, like thermal coolants, to juice up performance. When it comes to SoCs, most chipmakers have come to integrate new features into their products in pushing for a strident gaming experience, but MediaTek has decided to christen a new line of chipsets for devices dedicated to the grind.
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- XDA Developers spotted a commit on the Code Aurora forum that may point to this chip's name and base processor. It'll supposedly be the Snapdragon Wear 3300 and will use the 12nm Snapdragon 429 from mid-2018. Compared to the 28nm chip in the Wear 3100, this should help with battery consumption.
According to a report by WinFuture, Qualcomm is planning another new chipset for Wear OS devices, even though the existing Wear 3100 has barely materialized in any devices. The upcoming silicon will feature 64-bit support, 12nm node, Cortex A53 CPU cores, and is alleged to go by one of two potential names: "Snapdragon Wear 429" or "Snapdragon Wear 2700". In short, it sounds like it might actually bring some decent performance to the platform.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 700 series sits in an odd place in the market, one we don't really see in the US. The not-quite-flagship SoCs don't have quite the oomph the 800 series does, but the differences are strong enough to pull it away from the more mid-range 600 series. The newly announced Snapdragon 712 has an interesting, in-between state itself: On paper, it's essentially a Snapdragon 710 with clock bump.