Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset to power up Android flagship phones in 2022
Every December for the past years, Qualcomm holds its Annual Tech Summit in Hawaii. Also, it is the time of the year where Qualcomm announces its latest chipset to power up next-generation smartphones in the year 2022.
This year was no different, the company took the opportunity to unveil its latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.
This is the first time Qualcomm is straying away from the sequential numbering scheme that its chipsets have taken for years now. The latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will replace last year’s Snapdragon 888.
Faster performance, improved cameras, better AI, and many more, is what Qualcomm promises for its latest chipset. Here’s what you will expect from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset.
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Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset –– getting detailed
As is the case every year, Qualcomm promises some major improvements in the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 –– faster performance, better camera specs, improved AI capabilities, 5G support, and more.
Starting off, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is the very first chipset from Qualcomm to feature the latest Armv9 architecture from Arm.
Especially, the new eight-core Kryo CPU will feature a single prime core based on the Cortex-X2 at 3.0GHz. Alongside it is the three performance cores based on Cortex-A710 at 2.5GHz, and a quartet of efficiency cores that is based on the Cortex-A510 design at 1.8GHz.
In addition, the latest chipset jumps to a 4nm process, from the 5nm process on which the Snapdragon 888 featured. All in all, Qualcomm promises for up to 20 percent better performance and up to 30 percent more power efficiency than last year’s variant.
Read: Smartphones rumored to be carrying the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset
On the other hand, new Adreno GPU promises 30 percent faster graphics rendering. Also, it will offer a new GPU control panel for fine-tuning how games will run on your smartphone.
Of course, Qualcomm has loaded its new chip with a 5G modem for 5G capabilities. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X65 modem will be resposible for that –– packed with 5G features and firsts.
It is Qualcomm’s fourth-generation 5G modem, it builds on the existing mmWave and sub-6GHz compatibility featured on its predecessors. This offers 10Gbps speeds and the latest 3GPP Release 16 specification. Of crouse, we have yet to see that in actuality.
A first in Qualcomm
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth LE Audio –– a first for Qualcomm. And it will also feature the company’s Snapdragon Sound technology for enabling AptX Lossless wireless audio.
As usual, the company is putting emphasis on its improved camera capabilities, which Qualcomm is tying up for the first time under a the “Snapdragon Sight” brand.
From 14 bits (on the Snapdragon 888), Qualcomm upgrades to an 18-bit system that translates to 4,096 times more camera data. It also has up to four additional stop of dynamic range for very bright or very dark scenarios.
Camera enthusiats will love the triple ISP (image signal processor) that allows for shooting 240 12-megapixel photos in just a single or at the same time shoot in 8K with HDR while taking 64-megapixel stills, all thanks to an increased 3.2-gigapixel per second throughput.
Not only that, Qualcomm is also offering more high-end camera features out of the box, such as 8K video shooting support with 10 Plus and shooting in 18-bit RAW.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 also has a number of imaging improvements like better dark mode pictures that can use data from up to 30 images in a single shot (the Snapdragon 888 only uses up to six images).
Also throw in there a host of better AI processing techniques, improved auto-exposure, auto-focus, as well as auto-face detection technology. There is also a dedicted “bokeh engine” which adds portrait effects to a 4K video.
Finally, the “ultrawide engine” helps de-warp and remove chromatic aberrations from shots.
Bumped-up security improvements
And going over its security improvements, Qualcomm adds in a new hardware-level layer of security complete with a “dedicated Trust Management Engine.”
This in addition to offering support for the Android Ready SE standard which enables support for digital car keys, driver’s licenses, IDS, as well as e-money wallets. It will also feature a built-in iSIM support to directly connect to cellular networks.
It’s safe to say that Qualcomm made many improvements from the previous chipset and doesn’t appear to break the mold for its flagship chipsets. But it’s only a matter of time before we get to see how powerful the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is.