After a rocky start with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Qualcomm has refined its latest chipset series into reliable powerhouses thatpower many flagship Android phones. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 promises even more power, but this info has some of us at AP scratching our heads. After all, what’s the point of powerful hardware you can’t take advantage of?
TheSnapdragon 8 Gen 3 has many interesting elements to pick apart, including AI tools and the switch to 64-bit apps. However, it’s the GPU improvements that seem most questionable. While the numbers are exciting, some don’t think they’ll have a practical difference in how we actually play games on our Android smartphones.
Most Android games barely push powerful hardware to its limits
Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s new Adreno GPU will boost performance and efficiency by 25 percent, offering improved hardware-accelerated ray tracing, output at 240Hz, and support for Unreal Engine 5’s Lumen lighting rig. The problem is, if you enjoy gaming on Android, you probably won’t ever notice these differences.
When we review thelatest Android gaming phones, there are a few games that serve as excellent benchmarks. Genshin Impact, Dead Cells, Alien Isolation, and GRID Autosport all offer high framerate caps and stunning graphics that serve as excellent benchmarks. But the list ofgraphically demanding games for Androidis not particularly long.
But even these games don’t rely on the latest hardware. For example, theAsus Rog Phone 6 Pro comfortably ran Genshin Impact at 60fpswith graphics cranked. All thanks to the efficient cooling system of the Rog, keeping the Snapdragon Gen 1 chipset performant and reliable. There’s still little else available on Android that requires more power than Genshin did almost two smartphone generations ago.
There’s no reason why we can’t enjoy console-quality games on Android in 2023
New GPU releases for desktop PCs are significant landmarks each year, and PC games continue to push the boundaries of a computer’s hardware, with the main limit being just how much money you’re willing to spend. This has the unsavory effect of GPUs swiftly becoming outdated, with only the latest GPUs able to run the latest games at maximum settings. While I don’t want to see these practices replicated on mobile devices, it’s still disappointing to see how far behind Android is compared to PCs and consoles; the quality of games is drastically different. That being said, it’s not all bad.
Mobile gaming might not enjoy the prestige of PC gaming, but in recent years, we’ve seen a surge of quality games hit the Play Store and App Store. Ports of well-regarded PC and console games like Alien: Isolation and Civilization VI show that you may enjoy AAA gaming on your phone, but these releases are too few and far between. Worse yet, there’s no reason why more graphically demanding games can’t make their way to Android, seeing that Snapdragon has been offering incredibly performant chips for years.
Unfortunately, the future doesn’t look so bright for Android gaming.Capcom recently announced that it was bringing Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4 to mobile…, but only for iPhone and iPad. Netflix also recently announcedit’s only bringing Hades to iOS, leaving Android out. If Google doesn’t up its game soon, we might see even more AAA releases ship directly to iOS and skip Android altogether.
Google isn’t doing enough to ensure good games launch on Android
Google’s inability to add value to the Play Store by scoring sweet exclusives like Resident Evil could be a big problem for the growing Android gaming handheld market. These devices offer people a brilliant platform to play emulated, native, and streamed games while offering the versatility of the Android OS. But despite powerful hardware (Ayaneo’s upcoming Pocket S is thefirst to feature the gaming-focused Snapdragon G3x Gen 2 chipset), the woeful lack of demanding AAA games on Android could mean adoption will be slow outside emulation enthusiast circles.
A Snapdragon Gen 3 chipset paired with a AAA release like Resident Evil 4 could turn these niche handheld devices into mainstream gaming platforms. Heck,even the VP and General Manager of Handsets at Qualcomm Inc. has mentionedthat there is work to do on the side of bringing willing developers to the platform. Palms need greasing, and Google is nowhere to be seen.
Don’t get me wrong, we definitely applaud Qualcomm for what is undeniably going to be a brilliant chipset, but we have to wonder how its GPU improvements will benefit games when there are few modern Android games that can push it to its limits. Sadly, Google appears disinterested in offering AAA gaming on the Android platform; otherwise, the company wouldn’t be sitting back as iOS scores one exclusive after another. Google’s getting schooled, our games are lacking, and our hardware is dormant. More than a few of us think it’s time something changes.
