Qualcomm releases Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 flagship SoC, the 2nd under 4nm manufacturing process

American tech firm Qualcomm today launched the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, the company's flagship chip that will power future high-end smartphones.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is now official!

Following MediaTek's Dimensity 9000 footsteps, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor is built under the 4nm manufacturing process (Likely Samsung Foundry instead of TSMC) making it the second chip for smartphones designed under the said fab.

Highlights of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

The Kryo cores it is using are based on the Armv9 architecture. It uses Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710, and Cortex-A510. The Prime core is clocked at 3.0GHz. The Performance A710's are clocked at 2.5GHz. Finally, it is now using the A510 efficiency cores instead of the aging A55 cores with a 35 percent performance boost and 20 percent efficiency improvement.

Overall, Qualcomm is claiming that it is 20 percent more powerful and 30 percent more power-efficient than Snapdragon 888.

For GPU, it is using a new Adreno GPU promising a 30 percent boost in graphics rendering quality and a 25 percent improvement in power savings.  It also has a new Adreno Frame Motion engine that could generate twice as many frames while maintaining the same power consumption. It also has the Variable Rate Shading Pro to provide a finer grain of control for game developers to further tune game performance and a "Desktop-level" Volumetric rendering brings "unrivaled realism" to fog, smoke, and particle effects that have been optimized for mobile by Qualcomm Technologies’ in-house Snapdragon Studios.

Qualcomm promises that it can deliver ultra-smooth responsiveness, color-rich HDR scenes at the highest visual quality, and desktop-level capabilities.

For AI, it uses the 7th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine with a new Hexagon processor featuring a 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x larger memory than its predecessor. This also has Leica Leitz Look filters to create its legendary bokeh effect. It also has an AI-based natural language processing from Hugging Face that intelligently serves as an assistant in prioritizing and analyzing notifications. Qualcomm is also claiming that it has an on-device AI with the help of Sonde Health to analyze a user's vocal patterns to determine if a user is at risk for health conditions even COVID-19. 

This also has the 3rd Gen Qualcomm Sensing Hub with more data streams processed using "lowest power" AI.

This chip also has a new 18-bit mobile ISP via Snapdragon Sight Technology that can capture 4,000x more camera data than its predecessor for extreme dynamic range, color, and sharpness at 3.2 gigapixels per second. Qualcomm is also boasting that it is the first with 8K HDR video capture via HDR10+ format with over a billion shades of color. It also has a new Bokeh Engine that works like Portrait Mode for videos. Lastly, it has a fourth separate ISP, a new Always-On ISP allowing the camera to run with "extremely" low power consumption allowing users to experience always-on face unlocking and locking if your face isn’t present for heightened privacy.

For connectivity, the device is equipped with the company's 4th Gen Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System that can reach 10 Gigabit download speeds as well as FastConnect 6900 Mobile connectivity system with up to 3.6 Gbps via WiFi 6 and 6E.

The new high-end Snapdragon chip also has Bluetooth 5.2 and Snapdragon Sound Technology with Qualcomm aptX Lossless Technology via wireless audio at 16-bit 44.1kHz. It also has the new LE audio for broadcast audio, stereo recording, and a voice-back channel for gaming.

For security, Qualcomm is claiming that it has vault-like security to keep users' data protected. It also has a Trust Management Engine to achieve heightened security and provide additional Root of Trust for apps and services. It is also the first to come with Android Ready SE for car keys, drivers' licenses, and more.

The chip is also using the Secure Processing Unit features support for iSIM allowing users to easily and securely connect to cellular networks even without a SIM card.

Qualcomm said that the first commercial devices with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 are expected by the end of 2021. The global OEMs and brands that will use it are Black Shark, HONOR, iQOO, Motorola, nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, realme, Redmi, Sharp, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE.

Source: Qualcomm