Continuing on a trend that started last year, Samsung and Qualcomm announced that there's a specific version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Samsung phones, dubbed the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy. It's not just a regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, though it doesn't mean a whole lot either. This chipset is really just a clock speed bump that we've been able to piece together from spec sheets.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy has an increased primary clock speed from 3.3GHz to 3.39GHz and a presumed increased GPU clock speed of an undisclosed amount. While last year's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is what a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 would have looked like (and it was used as one in a Redmagic phone later that year), this time around things are a little bit different.

Will the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy be noticeably faster?

Here's the weird thing about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy: while the Prime core is a little bit faster (by a mere 90Hz), all of the other cores have actually been downclocked by 100MHz each. To illustrate the point, you'll get the following:

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy

Prime core (Cortex-X4)

3.3 GHz

3.39 GHz

Performance cores (A720)

3.2 GHz

3.1 GHz

Performance cores (A720)

3 GHz

2.9 GHz

Efficiency cores (A520)

2.3 GHz

2.2 GHz

There are a few reasons Samsung may be doing this, and I suspect that the biggest reason for it is heat generation. The last few jumps on a processor's frequency table exponentially consume more power, so cutting off the last 100MHz of the frequency table may result in better thermals and battery life while having a negligible impact on performance. It may also offset any power consumed by the jump in the Prime core. Smartphones try their hardest not to hit the highest clock speeds possible because the power consumption as you ramp up the frequency is exponential. Higher frequency means even greater power consumption, which means OEMs are always trying to find the balance between performance and battery life.

However, because of those decreased clock speeds, I suspect that there won't be much of a tangible speed increase in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy versus the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. What's especially weird is that it's hard to say this is like a "Plus" variant of the 8 Gen 3 as three clusters are actually downclocked instead, which may leave room for Qualcomm to launch a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 3 later this year.

Will there be a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 3?

Source: Samsung

With this news, I think it makes it possible that there could be a plus variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 released this year. While it didn't make sense last year as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy was the definitive version of the SoC, the 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy is slightly different. Last year, Qualcomm and Samsung talked about AI improvements that were only made possible with an upgraded Hexagon processor in the 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, but now there doesn't seem to be anything like that for this year's model.

What's strange is that while these features are said to be powered by Qualcomm, they are also coming to the Exynos 2400 units of the Samsung Galaxy S24 series. As a result, it doesn't seem like there is any specialized hardware being provided by Qualcomm to execute these models, as Samsung needs to be able to execute them on their own Exynos chips too. This Qualcomm for Galaxy SoC is definitely different to last year's.

It remains to be seen if there will be a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 3, but we're many months out from hearing about it if there will be one. Qualcomm has traditionally launched them in the summer, so we'll be keeping an eye out to see if they do this year.

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    SoC
    Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform
    Display
    6.2-inch FHD+ AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate
    RAM
    8GB
    Storage
    128GB, 256GB
    Battery
    4,000mAh
    Ports
    USB-C

    The Samsung Galaxy S24 is the base model of the S24 lineup. It is great for those looking for a smaller smartphone with good cameras at a reasonable price.

  • Samsung Galaxy S24+
    SoC
    Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform
    Display
    6.7-inch QHD+ AMOLED, 120Hz refresh rate
    RAM
    12GB
    Storage
    256GB, 512GB
    Battery
    4,900 mAh  
    Ports
    USB-C

    The Samsung Galaxy S24 Plus features a bigger screen and battery than the base model Galaxy S24. It is great if you want something larger that charges faster.

  • Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra
    SoC
    Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy
    Display
    6.8-inch Quad HD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2X, 120Hz refresh rate, 501 PPI, 2,600 nits peak brightness
    RAM
    12GB
    Storage
    256GB, 512GB, 1TB
    Battery
    5,000mAh
    Operating System
    Android 14, One UI 6.1

    The Galaxy S24 Ultra is Samsung's premium flagship phone for 2024, further refining everything Android enthusiasts love about this big, beautiful phone.