Qualcomm and Razer just announced their new collaborative achievement: a portable gaming platform called the Snapdragon G3X, with both companies referring to it as a “developer kit” as of right now. A lot of people have already commented on the platform’s similarity to the highly popular Nintendo Switch console.
With Qualcomm being the mobile industry’s “go-to” company for chips, no doubt that the Snapdragon G3X will provide a really high-quality gaming experience. The console will focus on streaming computer games, consoles, cloud services, and even Android-specific titles.
Qualcomm’s main page for the console outlines its pretty impressive capabilities. It will support up to 4K resolution and 144FPS. The company also boasts that it holds a 10-bit HDR to depict games in “a billion shades of vivid color.” As for the console’s overall performance, expect A-tier as well with the use of Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU, which will provide “immersive graphics and updateable drivers.”
Other expected features include monitor attachment capability, USB-C support, support for Variable Rate Shading, and more.
So what’s the drawback to the Snapdragon G3X? Well, as mentioned earlier, it’s currently only a system for developers. Justin Cooney, Razer’s director of global partnerships, released the following statement to The Verge regarding the console:
This is not a Razer hardware announcement. The Snapdragon G3x developer kit is a Qualcomm device. Working together with Qualcomm in this collaborative partnership, we aim to bring more publishers and developers to the table and achieve our joint vision for creating the future of portable gaming.
Qualcomm has found success previously with their VR chips, especially the Snapdragon XR2 in the Oculus Quest 2. I’m interested in knowing what the Snapdragon G3X will cause for the future of portable gaming platforms - let's wait and see.