Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Processor Announced For 2022 Flagship Smartphones

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is Qualcomm’s latest flagship smartphone processor, and it was announced during the company’s annual summit this week. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will be used in most high-end Android smartphones that will be launched in 2022. The new processor is built using a more power-efficient process (4nm) and completely new architecture—ARM v9—for faster performance and improved efficiency. The chip offers various improvements compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 888+, including improved performance, better image quality, faster connectivity, and longer battery life.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is manufactured using Samsung Foundry’s 4nm process, which offers higher power efficiency. The new processor offers 20% faster CPU processing and 30% higher graphics power compared to the Snapdragon 888+. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC has the X65 5G modem for 10Gb/s download speeds, an 18-bit Triple-ISP (Image Signal Processor), 8K HDR video recording, and Wi-Fi 6E.

Also Read: List Of Smartphones With Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen. 1 Processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Specifications, Features

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has a three-cluster design for its CPU, and all the cores are now based on the ARMv9 designs. It has one ARM Cortex-X2 CPU core clocked at 3GHz, three ARM Cortex-A710 CPU cores clocked at 2.5GHz, and four ARM Cortex-A510 CPU cores clocked at 1.8GHz. Qualcomm claims that the chipset brings in 20% performance improvement and 30% power saving compared to the Snapdragon 888+.

Qualcomm is also dropping the numbering scheme from its Adreno GPU, Hexagon DSP, and other parts with the new chip. The new GPU inside the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which is simply called Adreno, offers a 30% faster performance or up to 25% power savings. The GPU supports high-refresh-rate displays, HDR gaming, volumetric rendering, VRS (Variable Rate Shading), and raytracing.

The X65 5G modem that comes integrated inside the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 supports sub-6GHz and mmWave 5G networks. It can deliver peak download speeds of 10Gbps, thanks to CA (Carrier Aggregation).

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset focuses a lot on image and video processing since people these days capture a lot of images and videos. Its 18-bit Spectra Triple-ISP captures 4000x more camera data than the 14-bit ISP used inside the Snapdragon 888. It has three independent ISP cores, which allows it to simultaneously operate three 36MP cameras at 30fps, or up to 200MP sensors. The ISP also supports recording videos at 4K 120fps or 8K HDR 30fps in various video formats such as Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, and HLG. The chip also supports MFNR (Multi-frame Noise Reduction), Locally Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering, and improved low-light photography. It has AI-based face detection, autofocus, and auto-exposure.

Apart from supporting 4K 60Hz or QHD+ 144Hz displays, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip also supports up to 4K 60Hz external display with 10-bit colour depth and HDR10+. The chipset supports Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), VP8, and VP9 video decoding and encoding. The new processor also supports Qualcomm aptX Lossless wireless audio codec and Snapdragon Sound Technology for better sound quality. 

Moving onto its AI capabilities, Qualcomm has equipped the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with a 7th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine that offers 27 TOPS of performance. As for connectivity features, the chipset supports SA (Standalone) and NSA (Non-Standalone) 5G networks, FDD, TDD, Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, 4×4 MIMO, Qualcomm AI-Enhanced Signal Boost, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS, NavIC, GPS, QZSS, NFC, USB 3.1, and USB-C.