Qualcomm wants to play a bigger role in the world of games. While Qualcomm’s chips have long been powering a large portion of mobile gamers via smartphones, the company also wants to power real gaming devices, and has announced the new platform. Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 Gaming Device.
The new platform is designed to create a new category of mobile gaming devices. On most devices, it will probably run Android and play Android games. Not only that, but it will also support game streaming and other emerging gaming technologies. But the reason people love mobile games is that they are easy to carry and work on a device that users already carry in their pocket. It will be interesting to see if the concept of custom Android gaming devices can take off.
Qualcomm took me to their annual Snapdragon Summit to learn more about the new platform.
Platform Specifications
The current platform is basically designed to improve the gaming experience that you get on an Android device. It includes the Qualcomm Adreno GPU to run games at up to 144 fps and 10-bit HDR for vivid colors and detailed environments. It supports Qualcomm Sound technology to deliver high-quality, low-latency sound. And it also supports a multi-screen experience, with the ability to connect to a mixed reality device.
Image source: Christian de Looper for.
It seems that a lot of what could improve the gaming experience on the Snapdragon G3x has to do with the form factor and whether the devices can have fans, a larger screen, etc. That being said, this platform is designed to be geared more specifically for gaming. Therefore, it will probably be more efficient than a full mobile platform.
The Razer Snapdragon G3x Development Kit
In addition to the platform itself, Qualcomm also announced a partnership with Razer for the Snapdragon G3x development kit. This kit will not actually go on sale, or at least not yet. Instead, it is designed for developers to create or modify games to take advantage of drivers, higher thermal headroom, and higher frame rate displays. In other words, mobile gaming could start to get a little more graphically intense, at least where the hardware allows.
Qualcomm has yet to announce whether consumers will be able to get their hands on a device powered by Snapdragon G3x. Assuming developers really take advantage of the technology, we could start to see consumer devices sometime in the middle to late next year. At this point, it seems likely that Razer will have a mainstream device at some point. However, that remains to be seen.
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