The Snapdragon G series is a labor of love for Qualcomm. A trio of mobile platforms purpose built for handheld gaming devices, fueled by lofty ambitions to transform the handheld gaming space and really turn things up to 11.
With this new set of mobile platforms, Qualcomm says you will have “boundless ways to play virtually any game, anywhere.” We technically already have that. Mobile devices are more powerful than ever and developers of mobile games are creating some of the most impressive offerings to date. The Nintendo Switch is still going strong and putting out excellent titles. Then there’s the Steam Deck, ROG Ally, and other similar handheld gaming PCs. You also have cloud-dedicated handhelds like G Cloud and Razer Edge. And Sony’s upcoming Remote Play-only PlayStation Portal. That’s quite a few ways to play virtually any game, anywhere.
But, here’s how Qualcomm plans to use the Snapdragon G Series to take on all those options. Or perhaps not take them on but simply further development in the space.
The Snapdragon G series platform caters to multiple types of experiences
Essentially it’s got a processor for different use cases. There’s one specifically meant for fanless cloud gaming devices, the G1 Gen 1. One dedicated to “full-featured” mobile and cloud gaming, which is the G2 Gen 1. And then there’s the flagship platform. Aimed at tackling handhelds designed for performance and enthusiast-level gaming, the G3x Gen 2.
It’s not quite clear how good performance might be on these new devices running the flagship processor. But handheld makers are already taking notice. This week, AYANEO announced it was partnering with Qualcomm to develop the Pocket S. An upcoming handheld powered by Android, running on the G3x Gen 2 platform. AYANEO will be one of the first companies to use this new chipset. But there will undoubtedly be more. Can it handle PC games when it comes to performance? Probably.
In a recent interview with The Verge, Qualcomm gaming director Mithun Chandrasekhar said that they could easily crank the G3x Gen 2 up to 2GHz and have no problems beating a Steam Deck. But that would also tank the battery life down to about 30 minutes. And that’s not really an optimal experience. Chandrasekhar also hints that Qualcomm is testing potential applications of using the G3x Gen 2 with a compatibility layer for playing Windows PC games on non-Windows handhelds. Not too unlike the Steam Deck does with its Proton layer. Though Chandrasekhar doesn’t explicitly state this is something that will make it into production-ready units. Still, it’s an exciting prospect.
All of that said, the performance for the G3x Gen 2 is certainly there. Qualcomm says it GPU is 2x faster than the one in the G3x Gen 1 that was in the Razer Edge. And its CPU is 30% faster. It’s also equipped to handle Wi-Fi 7 High-Band Simultaneous (HBS) and 5G sub-6 and mmWave.
It very much appears that there’s a bright future for Qualcomm in the handheld gaming space. Especially if leads to more handhelds capable of running PC games.