Qualcomm's next high-end phone chip could be capable of putting the heat on Apple and its iPhone chips, according to a new report.

Expected to be called the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the new chip isn't likely to be announced until 2024 of course. This year Qualcomm is likely to announce the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Plus, a minor improvement over the chip that was released late last year. But moving beyond that, things are set to be pretty interesting.

According to a report via Weibo that was picked up by Notebookcheck, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be capable of scoring Geekbench results of around 1,800 for its single-core performance and around 6,500 for the multi-core score. That would put it in the same ballpark as Apple's A16 Bionic, the chip that powers the iPhone 14 lineup. It would also mean around a 20% to 24% improvement over the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

Ignoring the fact that Apple could possibly be up to the A18 Bionic by that point, the real interest is probably in the chip that Qualcomm is expected to announce in 2025. Whatever that winds up being called, it's thought to feature a two-core cluster of Nuvia's Oryon-based Phoenix L and Phoenix M cores in a 2+6 configuration. What's more, the whole thing will be built on TSMC's N3E manufacturing process for improved power efficiency and thermal management.

That's of course still a ways off, but this report makes it clear that Qualcomm isn't ceding the high-end mobile chip war to Apple any time soon. If the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can give Apple a run for its money, imagine what benchmark scores we'll see from the 2025 chip.