The last 5G chipset under the 6-series by Qualcomm was the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1, launched in September 2022. Today, the brand unveiled the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3. It is highly unlikely that the Snapdragon 6 Gen 2 or 6s Gen 2 will be launched by the brand, as it seems like Qualcomm wants to be in line with the 7 and 8 series when it comes to naming. The Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 is yet another chipset from the brand, which, going by the name, seems like an upgrade from the previous generation but is not an upgrade.
For example, the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 is built on the 6nm process, compared to the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1’s 4nm process. The newer chipset does have a higher clock speed for the CPU (2.3GHz vs 2.2GHz), but that’s pretty much the only significant upgrade over the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1.
Compared to the X62 5G modem in the 6 Gen 1, the 6s Gen 3 uses the X51 5G modem. Hence, you get a lower peak download speed in the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3. While the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 has the Qualcomm FastConnect 6700 WiFi/BT system, it is downgraded to FastConnect 6200 in the 6s Gen 3.
While the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 supports up to 3200MHz LPDDR5 RAM, the 6s Gen 3 supports up to 2133MHz LPDDR4X RAM.
The chip supports up to a 108MP camera sensor and can shoot 1080p videos at up to 60fps. For comparison, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 features 4K 30fps video recording.
In a nutshell, the Snapdragon 6s Gen 3 is more like an upgrade of Snapdragon 695 5G than an upgrade of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1. This means the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 still remains the most powerful SOC under the 6 series.
As for the phones with this chipset, the Moto G85 is reportedly launching with the 6s Gen 3 chipset soon.