For those unaware, Qualcomm is ready to unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 at the Snapdragon Summit this year. The event is about to take place on October 24 in Hawaii. Once Qualcomm officially announces the chipset, we should start to see flagships with the chipset rolling in full-fledge in early 2024.
But the thing is, not all the 2024 flagships may come with the 8 Gen 3. As I’ve previously reported, the last-gen flagship SoC from Qualcomm, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, is pricier than the competition. To be exact, the 8 Gen 2 costs more than the Apple A16 Bionic, which is far better than Qualcomm’s offering.
The elevated cost of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 made it hard for manufacturers to price their flagship phones low. And it seems we will see the same trend for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Some Manufacturers Will Skip the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 For Flagship Models
As per the report from Digital Chat Station, Qualcomm has priced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 higher than expected. To give you an idea, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 costs $160 per unit. And a price higher than the 8 Gen 2 means that the new chipset is possibly near the $200 mark or even higher.
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This price increase would naturally make some manufacturers rely on the last-gen chipset for some of their 2024 devices. From what I’m speculating, the devices’ Ultra/Pro/Plus versions will feature the 8 Gen 3. On the other hand, regular versions will come with the 8 Gen 2 SoC.
Manufacturers might also choose the Dimensity 9300, an upcoming flagship chipset from MediaTek. Even though there’s no pricing information available for that SoC, it will definitely not be as high as Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. And we’ve seen manufacturers do this before. For instance, many standard versions of Vivo and Oppo flagship devices come with Dimensity flagship SoC instead of Snapdragon.
