The Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 Is An Octacore Processor For The Middle Of The Pack
The Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 was just quietly announced by Qualcomm, providing a new option for manufacturers looking for a chip that can adequately power their midrange smartphone options. As a midrange chip, it’s not too much of a surprise that it has a 4G variant available alongside a 5G one (flagship chips tend to take 5G for granted).
The processor is built on a 6nm process and has two Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.3 GHz and six Cortex-A55 at 2.0 GHz. On paper, that looks exactly like what you’d expect from a midrange chip. It also relies on an Adreno 619 GPU, in case you’re planning to do a bit of gaming. You’ll only be able to use up to UFS 2.2 storage on this chip, as well as LPDDR4X RAM. don’t expect any performance beasts to be shipping with this chip.
The image signal processor for the camera will support a maximum of FHD at 60fps video recording. That’s not very exciting now, is it? Again, this is a mid-range chip, but the rest of the Snapdragon 6 devices allow 4K/30 recording, so it’s fair to be let down. The Qualcomm FastConnect 6200 modem also means that you get Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.2.
It Is Just A Reheated Version Of The Snapdragon 695 And Is Worse Off Than The Snapdragon 6 Gen 1
At this point, I’ve laid down the facts of the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3, which are its specs. Now, I can take off the gloves and let loose on what I don’t like about the SoC. As the “6s” chip, it is meant to be just a slightly underpowered and more budget-friendly version of this generation’s Snapdragon 6, similar to what we have with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.
Unfortunately, that’s not quite the case. This chip is a lot weaker than it really should be and its specs place it more like a 6s Gen 1. What I’m trying to say is that the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 is an objectively better chip. It’s built on a 4nm process, supports UFS 3.1 storage and LPDDR5 RAM, allows for 4K/30 video recording, has the better Adreno 710 GPU and FastConnect 6700 modem, and even gets two more Cortex-A78 cores over the 6s Gen 3. It is so much better, despite being so much older.
On top of that, it looks like Qualcomm put the Snapdragon 695 (remember the days of three-digit Snapdragon models?) back into the microwave like they did for the Snapdragon 4 Gen 1, and just tweaked enough to present this as a new chip. Lazy work and it makes the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 a disappointing choice for upcoming devices unless it comes at a ridiculously low price point.
