Qualcomm has finally introduced the next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform at its annual Tech Summit 2021 in Hawaii. This next-gen chipset is a part of the flagship Snapdragon 8-series and succeeds the current high-end Snapdragon 888 SoC. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (aka the long-rumored Snapdragon 898) brings improvements to 5G, AI, cameras, gaming, connectivity, and more. Here’s a look at the details.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Announced
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 comes equipped with the 4th gen Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System and is the world’s first 5G modem-RF solution to support up to 10 Gigabit download speeds. It also comes with Qualcomm’s FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System for speeds up to 3.6Gbps.
As rumored previously, it comes with a primary ARM Cortex-X2 core, clocked at 3.0GHz. Qualcomm claims that the X2 core is 16% faster than the X1 core. Moreover, you should know that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset is developed on Samsung’s 4nm process. Display-wise, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 supports up to 144Hz refresh rate with a Quad-HD+ screen resolution.
The SoC focuses on the AI part with the help of the 7th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine that includes a Qualcomm Hexagon processor for a 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x larger shared memory than its predecessor. The AI bits can be seen in the camera department, which will come with support for Leica Leitz Look filters. Its AI-based natural language processing can help sort out notifications and with Sonde Health, the AI can be used to analyze a user’s vocals to determine risks of COVID-19.
For the cameras, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 gets support for Snapdragon Sight Technology. It includes an 18-bit ISP, which is a first for a Snapdragon chipset. It will ensure better capturing of dynamic range, colors, and sharpness. Moreover, the chipset supports 8K HDR video recording, improved portrait mode for videos, and more. There’s also support for up to 200MP cameras, which is expected to become a trend soon and Motorola could be the first to adopt a 200MP camera.
The chipset comes with support for a new Adreno GPU that is claimed to ensure 30% more graphics performance and 25% improved power management. There’s support for various Snapdragon Elite gaming features that provide users with improved performance, improved visuals, desktop-level capabilities, and more. There are features like Variable Rate Shading Pro for game developers to fine-tune the performance in a better way and Volumetric rendering for realistic visuals.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 supports Bluetooth version 5.2 and Snapdragon Sound Technology with Qualcomm aptX Lossless Technology for CD-like lossless audio and LE audio features such as broadcast audio, stereo recording, and voice back-channel for gaming.
This chipset focuses on security as well and comes with a dedicated Trust Management Engine for improved security, Android Ready SE (a standard for digital car keys), iSIM support, and more.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is expected to reach flagship phones by Xiaomi, Oppo, Motorola, Black Shark, ZTE, OnePlus. Nubia, iQOO, Realme, Xiaomi, Sony, Vivo, and more. It will be commercially available in high-end smartphones by the end of this year. So, are you excited to try out Snapdragon 8 Gen 1? Let us know in the comments below.
