Everything to know about new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor
What's the story
Qualcomm has unveiled its latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset as the "most advanced 5G mobile platform" for next-generation premium Android smartphones.
It is touted to have the world's first 5G modem-RF solution to reach 10Gbps of download speeds and commercial 18-bit mobile ISP.
The first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered smartphones are said to arrive in December 2021 itself.
Here are more details.
Context
Why does it matter?
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is Qualcomm's latest flagship system-on-chip (SoC) and the first to bear the new naming scheme.
The processor will be adopted by global OEMs and brands, including Xiaomi, OnePlus, Motorola, and OPPO, among others.
It will give fair competition to MediaTek's latest Dimensity 9000 chip, Samsung's Exynos 2200 SoC, and Apple's Bionic processors.
Composition
The chipset is based on 4nm process technology
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset is based on the 4nm process technology.
It has a 64-bit ARM-V9 architecture-based octa-core Kryo CPU speeding at up to 3.0GHz, which promises 20% performance improvements over its predecessor Snapdragon 888 SoC.
The new Adreno GPU is said to deliver 30% faster graphics rendering and 25% improved power efficiency. It also supports Vulkan 1.1.
Artificial Intelligence
It sports four times faster Qualcomm AI Engine
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor comes with a 7th-generation Qualcomm AI Engine which is touted to be 4x faster than the last-generation chip.
It packs a Qualcomm Hexagon processor offering 2x larger shared memory and 2x faster tensor accelerator and is powered by a 3rd-generation Qualcomm Sensing Hub.
It has integrated Leica Leitz Look filters, natural language processing, and an on-device health analyzer.
Features
Snapdragon Sight can capture 4,000x more camera data
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC offers up to 4K on-device display resolution, up to 144Hz screen refresh rate, HDR10+ support, and LPDDR5 RAM configuration.
Meanwhile, the Snapdragon Sight features first-ever always-on 18-bit ISP (image signal processor) that can capture up to 4,000x more data than its 14-bit predecessors.
It also supports up to 200MP single-camera resolution and up to 8K HDR video recording.
Connectivity
It is the world's first to provide Android Ready SE
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset has a Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System which delivers up to 10Gbps of download speeds and supports mmWave 5G and sub-6GHz 5G cellular technologies.
It offers support for Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, GPS, and NFC connectivity.
It is also the first platform to feature Android Ready Secure Element (SE) Alliance for securing digital car keys, licences, and more.
Smartphones
Which smartphones will be powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 1?
The Motorola Edge X30 (Edge 30 Ultra) is said to be the first smartphone to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.
Apart from it, Xiaomi 12, Realme GT 2 Pro, OPPO's next-generation Find X series, Samsung Galaxy S22 series, and OnePlus 10 Pro are amongst the first phones to feature the latest flagship processor.