With the advent of Steam Deck and its subsequent rivals, the market of handheld consoles is booming. Naturally, we expect more and more brands to join this growing segment. While the gaming smartphone market keeps its timid presence in the market, we believe that handheld consoles can be the future for some brands. That is why Qualcomm has been exploring this segment since 2023. The company launched its Snapdragon G brand for portable consoles. Today, it is unveiling the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3, G2 Gen 2, and G1 Gen 2 for a new batch of handheld consoles. It brings trending technologies like ray tracing and the Lumen technology from Unreal Engine 5.
Snapdragon G3 Gen 3
The Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 is the first G-series chip to offer support for Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen. For those unfamiliar, it is a dynamic global illumination and reflection system. This can result in games with accurate lighting and more advanced reflection. Something that was a challenge with the past technologies. Additionally, the G3 Gen 3 brings the trending ray-tracing technology. It is the hardware accelerated, a first for the G series.
The Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 brings improvements in performance. It is an 8-core CPU with 1x Prime, 5 x Performance, a 2 x Efficiency cores. According to Qualcomm, it is 30% faster than the G3 Gen 2 CPU. Furthermore, the new Adreno A32 GPU is 28% faster.
Snapdragon G2 Gen 2
The Snapdragon G2 Gen 2 arrives as an intermediary option, but still, it’s a massive upgrade over its predecessor. It has a 2.3x boost in performance and a 3.8x increase in GPU capabilities. Interestingly, the CPU has a different mix of cores. It has a 1 + 4 + 3 core arrangement instead of the 1 + 5 + 2. Qualcomm, however, does not offer details about what cores are used. For those unaware, Qualcomm has been using its in-house developed Orion cores in the mobile chips. We don’t know if the new G-series has made the change as well.
The Adreno A22 GPU supports Snapdragon Gamer Super Resolution (upscaling). It’s Qualcomm’s response to NVIDIA’s DLSS technology or AMD FSR. For those unaware, it renders the image in a lower resolution and through the use of AI and advanced image upscaling methods, it raises the resolution without compromising the quality. It also has Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.0 (frame gen). There is no hardware ray tracing here. It supports QHD+ display resolution at up to 144 Hz.
Both the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3 and the G2 Gen 2 feature Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3. There is also optional 5G (sub-6GHz and mmWave) support.
Snapdragon G1 Gen 2
Is a cost-effective option and its focus is on cloud gaming. It offers support for 1080p+ resolution at up to 120Hz along with Wi-Fi 5 (ac) and Bluetooth 5.1. There is a 5G option available too. The new CPU (2+6) lacks a prime core. However, it is still 80% faster than its predecessor. The Adreno A12 delivers a more modest 25% improvement in performance.
Availability
Starting this quarter, there will be handheld gaming devices from the likes of AYANEO, ONEXSUGAR, Retroid Pocket and others featuring the new Snapdragon G chips.
The AYANEO Pocket S2 will be released later this month featuring the Snapdragon G3 Gen 3. It will be a sequel to the Pocket S1 which had the Snapdragon G3X Gen 2. There are no details for a specific date. The company will also unveil the AYANEO Gaming Pad with the same chipset, but it will arrive only in May 2025.
