TL;DR
- AYN’s Odin 3 handheld was advertised as using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, but that’s not quite accurate.
- The handheld actually uses Qualcomm’s Dragonwing Q8, a variant that shares almost all specs with the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
- The difference between the two chips is that the Q8 lacks cellular connectivity.
The new Odin 3 from Android gaming handheld maker AYN was initially introduced as the first device of its kind to come with Qualcomm’s high-end Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset. However, earlier this week, AYN walked back that claim, clarifying that although the handheld has a beefy Qualcomm chip – the Dragonwing Q8 – it’s not a Snapdragon 8 Elite, strictly speaking. Now, the company explained the confusion.
in email to Android AuthorityAYN tells us that the two chipsets under consideration here are functionally almost identical, sharing key features and similar high performance. The Dragonwing chip in Odin 3 lacks cellular connectivity capability, but since this is not a feature offered in Odin 3, users will not notice any difference.
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The Snapdragon 8 is purpose-built for elite smartphones, where cellular data connectivity cannot be compromised. Meanwhile, the Dragonwing Q8 is meant for use cases where a mobile connection is not necessary (AYN points to use cases in the IoT space).
Both chipsets are actually directly comparable outside of their ability to connect to 5G: the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dragonwing Q8 are both 3nm Qualcomm chipsets with the company’s in-house Orion CPU (at 4.32GHz) and Adreno 830 GPU. As AYN says, both “share the same CPU/GPU configuration.”
AYN was until recently advertising Odin 3 as shipping with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Strictly speaking, this is not true – the Dragonwing Q8 may be a variant of the 8 Elite, but it is not the 8 Elite proper. The company has improved its marketing to name the chipset correctly.
Still, the only difference between the two chips in question appears to be cellular connectivity. If you were interested in Odin 3 based on AYN’s Snapdragon marketing, this change may not matter much to you.
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