Qualcomm’s work with its premium-tier chipsets has been nothing short of amazing, with flagship SoCs like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and 8 Gen 3 setting a benchmark standard for competitors to follow. With that being said though, the company still designs chips for more affordable devices such as entry-level and midrange phones as seen with its Snapdragon S-series platforms. In fact, the company recently announced the launch of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, which is expected to make its market debut soon.
Qualcomm says that the 7s Gen 3 combines performance while remaining accessible for more wallet-friendly devices. Let’s take a look at what it comes with!
General Performance and Gaming
Qualcomm claims that the 7s Gen 3 packs enhanced performance and efficiency with the built-in Kryo CPU and allows for around 20% faster processing and 45% longer battery life, although this is of course subject to individual usage. As with other Snapdragon chips, there’s also an Adreno GPU onboard which provides up to 40% performance boost, which should be ideal for gaming. Additionally, Qualcomm’s built-in AI Engine accelerates AI tasks by over 30%, while the device’s overall power consumption is reduced by 12%, allowing for extended use between charges.
For gaming, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 comes with select Snapdragon Elite Gaming features alongside support for FHD+ 144 Hz displays. Qualcomm has included its Adaptive Performance Engine 3.0 that works well for extended gameplay, while Variable Rate Shading enhances visuals without compromising power. Finally, Adreno HDR Fast Blend accelerates rendering of complex scenes, and there’s also support for the Vulkan 1.3 API.
AI and Camera Features
At this point, AI has pretty much become commonplace in a lot of new tech products, and this of course includes smartphone silicone. As such, The Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 comes with support for on-device generative AI, which works via Qualcomm’s AI Engine. There’s a dedicated NPU that conserves power while enabling the platform to work with multi-language translation and transcription, and there’s even a Sensing Hub which enhances communication with AI-driven noise cancellation and reduction.
For imaging and camera capabilities, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 also features AI-enhanced photography and videography; there’s also support for 200 MP resolution photos as well as 4K HDR videos. Qualcomm’s Spectra Triple ISP allows devices to capture photo and video simultaneously, while AI Remosaic and AI Video Retouch enhance image and video quality. Finally, Qualcomm adds that its ISP allows for zero shutter lag – a bold claim but one that we’d love to see in action nonetheless.
Availability
Qualcomm says that we should see the 7s Gen 3 in action as early as next month, with Xiaomi being the first brand to adopt the new chip in an upcoming device. With all that said, we should see the new chip in more smartphones as the year progresses.
