It’s almost time for Qualcomm to introduce its next mobile chipset: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This is the silicon that will power many of the 2023. best android phones – including the galaxy s23 Serie.
If you’re interested in smartphone performance, it’s worth paying attention to all the details about the chipset once it’s available. For now, we’ve only seen a few leaked benchmarks hinting at the possible performance improvements of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. And based on that, Android phones arriving next year will pack a lot of punch.
Here’s what we’ve heard about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 so far.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 News (Updated Nov 4)
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2: possible release date
Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 on November 29, 2021 and the Snapdragon 888 on December 1, 2020. If Qualcomm sticks to that announcement schedule, that would mean an announcement towards the end of November.
In fact, Qualcomm has confirmed plans to make a snapdragon event (opens in a new tab) in Hawaii from November 15 to 17. That’s where and when we’re likely to hear about any new silicon.
Assuming we first see the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in November, I’d expect to see phones using this chipset in late 2022, with most devices arriving in the new year.
In the past, Samsung’s Galaxy S devices have generally been the first phones with Qualcomm’s new silicon to appear. The next model Galaxy S23It is rumored that it will arrive in January.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2: Performance
While we won’t know what Qualcomm’s new chipset will offer until its official launch, we’ve heard some rumors about the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The most intriguing rumor claims that it will outperform the iPhone 14 and its A15 Bionic chipset.
That information comes from the filter. Digital chat station on Weibo, who claimed that Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 could boost up to 3.4-3.5GHz. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 tops out at 3.2 GHz.
Also, we have seen some leaked benchmarks showing devices that are supposedly using Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, or so we think. The first comes from a device believed to be the Galaxy S23. It got a single-core score of 1,524 and a multi-core score of 4,597, the latter of which beats what we recorded when testing the iPhone 14.
the iPhone 14 ProPowered by a newer A16 Bionic chipset, it posted higher scores than those attributed to the rumored Galaxy S23.
| single core | multicore | |
| Galaxy S23 Plus (alleged) | 1,485 | 4,844 |
| Galaxy S23 (alleged) | 1,524 | 4,597 |
| iPhone 14 | 1,727 | 4,553 |
| iPhone 14 Pro | 1,891 | 5,469 |
| Google Pixel 7 Pro | 1,060 | 3,046 |
A second Samsung device appeared on Geekbench, this is believed to be the Galaxy S23 Plus. It posted similar results to the previous leak, which you can see above.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is expected to be manufactured on TSMC’s 4nm process, equipped with an Adreno 740 GPU. As for the core design, it is likely to adopt Qualcomm’s new design with one large core, four medium cores and three small nuclei.
The results from the image above indicate that the chip was an octa-core design with three small cores running at 3.02 GHz, four medium cores running at 2.8 GHz, and one large core running at 3.36 GHz. (The last rounded number would be 3.4 GHz, which would line up with Digital Chat Station’s claims).
This also squares with previous rumors, which point to a single Cortex-X3, two Cortex-A715s, two Cortex-A710s, and three Cortex-A510s. An earlier leak mentioned a Cortex-A720, which doesn’t exist. However, the Cortex-A715 and A710 do exist. The Cortex-X3 is ARM’s most powerful core yet.
Of course, we wonder why Qualcomm would use both a Cortex-A715 and an A710. The former is supposed to replace the latter, but both it and the X3 are 64-bit only. The A710 and A510 support 32-bit, which means Qualcomm may want to include support for legacy 32-bit apps.
The Adreno 740 GPU should also impress, with some rumors claiming it can match the iPhone 14 Pro. We’ll have to wait to see if that’s true or not.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2: Phones
Of course, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will likely power many flagship Android phones in 2023, in addition to the Pixel 8, which we expect will use Google’s own Tensor silicon. All Galaxy S23 models, for example, are expected to have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 at their hearts, as is the OnePlus 11 Pro.
We also expect Xiaomi, Oppo and Motorola to launch Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 phones in the next month as they all compete to be “first” with the new chip. It is basically a fact that the best gaming phones like the ROG Phone 7 and RedMagic 8 would also use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to great effect.
It’s also possible we’ll see handheld gaming devices with the new chip as everyone bids for that market currently dominated by the nintendo switch – more him steam cover. Qualcomm has made a big fuss about the gaming performance of its chips recently and we expect that to continue.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2: Outlook
From all appearances, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is going to be an impressive chip, perhaps even enough to give Apple pause. (Cupertino has been keen to note the performance delta between his chips and those of the competition.) Those leaked benchmarks certainly give us hope that Qualcomm is closing the gap.
We don’t have to wait long to learn everything we want to know about Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and not long after that to start seeing the first phones using the chip. Be sure to keep it locked here for the latest news as it happens.