The “s” chips inside the Snapdragon 8-series have been popular for offering great performance at an affordable price, and the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is no different. It delivers a strong CPU performance with an all-big-core CPU design, a reliable Adreno GPU for smooth gaming, and a mature ISP.
The Dimensity 9300 Plus was announced a year before the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4, featuring an even more powerful CPU with more large cores, a capable GPU, and competitive camera and connectivity capabilities. The real question is whether the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 truly outperforms the Dimensity 9300 Plus, or if the Dimensity 9300 Plus is too compelling to ignore? Let’s find out.
Let’s begin with the spec sheet:
| Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 | Dimensity 9300 Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | April 2025 | May 2025 |
| Process node | TSMC’s 4nm (N4P) | TSMC’s 4nm (N4P) |
| CPU cores | 8-core | 8-core |
| CPU cores | 1 x 3.21GHz — Cortex-X4 3 x 3.0GHz — Cortex-A720 2 x 2.8GHz — Cortex-A720 2 x 2.02GHz — Cortex-A720 | 1 x 3.4GHz — Cortex-X4 3 x 2.85GHz — Cortex-X4 4 x 2.0GHz — Cortex-A720 |
| GPU | Adreno 825 ray tracing support Snapdragon Elite Gaming features | Mali-G720 Immortalis MP12 ray tracing support MediaTek Adaptive Gaming Technology (MAGT) |
| NPU | Qualcomm Hexagon NPU | MediaTek NPU 790 |
| Memory | LPDDR5X up to 4.8GHz speed | LPDDR5X, LPDDR5T up to 4.8GHz speed |
| Storage | UFS 4.0 | UFS 4 + MCQ |
| Camera | Quacomm Spectra ISP (Triple AI-ISPs, 18-bit) up to 320MP single camera up to 108MP single camera with zero shutter lag up to 36MP triple cameras with zero shutter lag real-time semantic segmentation (up to 250 layers) 4K/60fps video recording | Imagiq 990 ISP (18-bit) up to 320MP single camera AI Semantic Analysis Video Engine (up to 16 categories) up to 8K/30fps video recording |
| Connectivity | Snapdragon X75 5G modem (sub-6GHz) up to 4.2Gbps download speed Wi-Fi 7 (peak speed: 5.8Gbps) Bluetooth 6.0 | MediaTek 5G R16 modem (mmWave, sub-6GHz) up to 7Gbps download speed Wi-Fi 7 (peak speed: 6.5Gbps) Bluetooth 5.4 |
Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 vs Dimensity 9300 Plus: Benchmark score
Note: The benchmark tests were performed on the POCO F7 (powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4) and the Vivo X200 FE (powered by the Dimensity 9300 Plus)
Geekbench performance
Thanks to a more performance-focused CPU configuration, the Dimensity 9300 Plus pulls higher Geekbench scores. In the single-core test, it gets about a 5.6% higher score, while the multi-core score is up by 7.3%.
| Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 | Dimensity 9300 Plus | |
| Single core | 2,047 | 2,162 |
| Multi core | 6,620 | 7,104 |
The difference isn’t significant. However, the Dimensity 9300 Plus would still benefit from peak performance. In regular everyday tasks like browsing the internet and scrolling through your social feeds, there shouldn’t be any performance difference, though.
AnTuTu performance
In the AnTuTu benchmark, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 outperforms the Dimensity 9300+ by 6% in total score. The latter still gets a slightly higher CPU score, but the Snapdragon chip makes a strong comeback in the GPU score, scoring 465K (vs. 455K on the Dimensity 9300+).
| Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 | Dimensity 9300 Plus | |
| AnTuTu score | 2,087,410 | 1,968,353 |
| CPU | 455,444 | 465,444 |
| GPU | 877,203 | 803,677 |
| Memory | 428,872 | 338,353 |
| UX | 325,891 | 360,879 |
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 also benefits from better memory performance, while the Dimensity 9300+ achieves a higher score in the user experience (UX) test.
3DMark performance
3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test
The 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test further solidifies the point that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 offers better gaming performance. It gets about a 10% better high score, which represents the peak performance.
| Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 | Dimensity 9300 Plus | |
| High score | 4,470 | 4,046 |
| Low score | 3,542 | 2,405 |
| Stability | 79.24% | 59.44% |
The gap widens significantly to 47% in the low-score test, indicating that the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 chip doesn’t throttle as much as the Dimensity 9300+ during long gaming sessions. This results in much better stability on Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 devices.
Now that we know the benchmark scores, let’s examine the key differences to get a clearer picture.
Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 vs Dimensity 9300 Plus: Key differences
CPU, GPU & NPU
The CPUs of Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 and Dimensity 9300 Plus comprise Cortex-X4 and Cortex-A720 cores. The Cortex-X4 offers higher performance, while the Cortex-A720 balances power and efficiency. Since the Dimensity 9300 Plus features more Cortex-X4 cores, it is able to achieve higher peak performance in CPU tests across benchmarks. The chip also benefits from a higher CPU clock speed.
Gaming performance has always been a major strength of Qualcomm chips, thanks to highly optimized Adreno GPUs, improved driver support, and excellent sustained performance. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 with Adreno 825 GPU achieves a much better score and stability on gaming benchmarks than the Dimensity 9300 Plus with Mali-G720 GPU.
For on-device AI intelligence, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 relies on Qualcomm’s Hexagon NPU architecture. It brings generative AI capabilities and support for multimodal and multilingual AI assistants.
Qualcomm also uses AI to improve the camera output and deliver stronger connectivity. MediaTek also leverages its NPU 790 in these areas and supports a variety of popular LLMs, including Alibaba Qwen, Google Gemini nano, and Meta Llama 3.
Camera and imaging
Equipped with an 18-bit triple ISP, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 supports up to 320MP single camera and real-time semantic segmentation for photos and videos with up to 250 layers. Furthermore, the chip supports intelligent, real-time skin and sky tone correction and up to 4K video recording at 60fps.
The Dimensity 9300 Plus, on the other hand, features an 18-bit Imagiq 990 ISP with up to 320MP single camera, AI Semantic Analysis Video Engine with 16 categories of scene segmentation, and 8K video recording at 30fps. MediaTek highlights AI-videography and zero-latency video preview as key features.
Connectivity
The Snapdragon X75 5G modem on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is a sub-6GHz-only modem with a peak download speed of 4.2Gbps. Over a Wi-Fi 7 connection, the peak speed jumps to 5.8Gbps. The modem supports Bluetooth 6.0, Bluetooth Low Energy, and XPAN, enabling earbuds/headphones to stay connected via Wi-Fi for wider-range coverage.
The Dimensity 9300+ features an integrated 5G modem supporting both mmWave and sub-6 GHz. Furthermore, it offers higher download speeds over 5G and Wi-Fi connections, but doesn’t bring support for the latest Bluetooth standard.
Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 vs Dimensity 9300 Plus: Which is a better choice?
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 features a more powerful Adreno 825 GPU, delivering a smooth gaming experience, even during longer sessions, with much less throttling. The positive aspects also include a high memory performance, an advanced Hexagon NPU, a mature 18-bit AI ISP, and Bluetooth 6.0 support.
The Dimensity 9300 Plus excels in peak CPU performance and supports 8K video recording. The integrated 5G modem supports both mmWave and sub-6GHz bands with faster download speeds. And the Imagiq 990 ISP features AI video enhancements and zero-latency preview.
In short, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 is a better choice for gaming, while the Dimensity 9300 Plus delivers higher peak CPU performance. For everyday usage, both chipsets offer a similar performance with no significant difference.
