Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC unveiled; Xiaomi and OnePlus to feature this chipset.

At the Snapdragon Summit 2022, Qualcomm debuted its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.

According to Qualcomm, the new chip is set to revolutionize the genre of flagship smartphones in 2023. The new chip boasts 4.35X better AI capabilities, 40 per cent better power efficiency, and 25 per cent quicker GPU capabilities over the Snapdragon Gen 1 chipset.

The second-gen SoC claims to upscale AI and ML experience.

The company also disclosed at the Summit 2022 that smartphone OEMs like Asus ROG, Honor, iQoo, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, RedMagic, Redmi, Sharp, Sony, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE would use the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC on their smartphones. The same is expected to be launched by the end of this year; these new phones have yet to come out with their exact names.

Oppo has also announced its next-gen Find X premium flagship smartphone will feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC.

Qualcomm’s new chipset is officially known as SM8550-AB and is manufactured using a 4nm process technology. The new chip is also designed to enhance AI and connectivity options. 

According to Qualcomm, SM8550-AB has an upgraded Hexagon processor, allowing faster natural language processing, multi-language translation, and advanced AI camera features.

When we talk about connectivity, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 features Qualcomm’s FastConnect 7800 connectivity system, which allows Wi-Fi 7 to have the lowest latency and extremely high-speed internet (5.8Gbps). The technology is basically in keeping with Wi-Fi 7-enabled routers becoming more common in households.

In Short

• Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC supports the new 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP3 camera sensor.
• It even has Wi-Fi 7 support.
• Oppo Find X phone will feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. 

Qualcomm’s New Snapdragon

Snapdragon’s debut is focused on creating supreme experiences not just via smartphones but through any connected devices – from smart homes to gaming devices, fitness gear, connected cars, and even more. 

Fueled by an upgraded Qualcomm Hexagon Processor, the company shared that users can expect and experience faster natural language processing with multi-language translation and advanced AI camera features.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, via the AI neural network, brings the first Cognitive ISP that automatically enriches photos and videos in real time with semantic segmentation.

The latest upgrade makes the camera contextually aware of faces, facial features, hair, clothes, skies, etc. This allows it to optimize details and receive customized professional image tuning individually.

This will also be the first Snapdragon to possess an AV1 codec with support for video playback of up to 8K HDR at 60 frames per second.

All this adds up to outstanding gains in efficiency and performance. The new platform is up to 4.35×1 faster than its predecessor in models like natural language processing (NLP). 

Transformer networks power NLP and the support for transformer networks are upgraded to enhance performance in increasingly new ways. This results from the industry’s only Micro Tile Inferencing technique, which powers features like real-time multi-language translation. In other words, one can speak into a language translator and have it translated into multiple languages running these complex networks.

It’s also the first Snapdragon mobile platform to support INT4, with 60 per cent better performance per watt and 90 per cent better overall performance than its predecessor. This innovative technique shrinks the models and allows complex neural networks to run more efficiently, which means queries can be answered much faster for voice assistants, or images can be classified in bulk for camera applications. 

For media consumption, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 supports 48kHz lossless music streaming and latency as low as 48ms. The latter will substantially help gamers while communicating with other players in-game. It also includes a Snapdragon X70 5G Modem-RF System with Qualcomm’s 5G AI processor to offer peak downlink speeds of 10Gbps and peak uplink of 3.5Gbps (similar to its predecessor).

Qualcomm is working with Samsung to bring support for its new 200-megapixel ISOCELL HP3 camera sensor. The new sensor is rumoured to debut on the Galaxy S23 Ultra, while phones like Motorola Edge 30 Ultra come with an ISOCELL HP1 sensor. The new-gen sensor will offer more clarity even if users take screenshots of a zoomed-in area. This is also the first Snapdragon SoC to include an AV1 codec with excellent support for video playback up to 8K HDR at 60 frames per second.

Other key features include support for LPDDR5x RAM, UFS 4.0 storage, QHD+ at 144Hz, and more. The octa-core processor has a prime core at 3.2GHz, four performance cores at up to 2.8GHz, and three efficiency cores at up to 2.0GHz. Meanwhile, Oppo has confirmed that its next Oppo Find X phone will feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will also debut new Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, including real-time hardware-accelerated ray tracing that will deliver realistic light, reflections, and illuminations to mobile games.

The upgraded Qualcomm Adreno GPU claims up to 25% faster performance, and the Qualcomm Kryo CPU promises up to 40% more power efficiency.

It will also support spatial audio with dynamic head tracking for immersive gaming and multimedia experiences. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 supports 5G, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

“Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 delivers groundbreaking AI, unparalleled connectivity, champion-level gameplay, enabling consumers to enhance every experience on their most trusted device,” said Chris Patrick, SVP and GM of mobile handsets at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Conclusion: The new Snapdragon from Qualcomm is set to revolutionize the way we use smartphones.

The new chip is set to boost the genre of flagship smartphones in 2023. The new chip boasts 4.35X better AI capabilities, 40 per cent better power efficiency, and 25 per cent quicker GPU capabilities over the Snapdragon Gen 1 chipset.

Its enhanced features enable smartphones to perform even better than what we anticipate and are used to at the present moment.