Leading chipmaker Qualcomm has finally unveiled its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset during the Snapdragon Summit 2022. The new chipset succeeds Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Gen 1 + and claims to “revolutionize the landscape of flagship smartphones in 2023.” The new chipset will offer 4.35X better AI capabilities, and 25% faster GPU capabilities over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC.
The chipset is meant for the flagship Android phones and promises to bring loads of performance and efficiency upgrades over its predecessors. It has been fabricated on a 4nm node just like Apple’s A16 Bionic, but a different chip architecture will aim to improve the raw performance of the chipset.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Chipset: What’s new
The new chipset is formally known as SM8550-AB and it has been designed to improve AI as well as connectivity options. It is a Hexagon processor that will allow faster natural language processing with multi-language translation and advanced AI camera features.
Connectivity upgrades
Let’s talk about connectivity first, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 features Qualcomm’s FastConnect 7800 connectivity system that will enable WiFi 7 for the lowest latency and high-speed internet (5.8Gbps). It keeps the device future ready once WiFi 7-enabled routers become more common in households. Moreover, the chipset uses the new Snapdragon X70 model that can give 5G download speeds of 10Gbps and peak upload speeds of 3.5Gbps. It supports Dual SIM Dual Active mode for 2 5G SIM cards together. There is also Bluetooth 5.3 for local connectivity and the USB ports will support USB 3.1 standards and also support Quick Charge 5 fast charging standards.
Performance Upgrades: Powerful Architecture & Better Gaming
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 comes with a new Kyro CPU that promises up to 35% higher performance and 40% better power efficiency. There is also a new Cortex X3-based Kyro Prime core that will run at 3.2GHz with 4 performance cores clocked at 2.8GHz. So, there is a total of 5 performance cores. The efficiency cores have been reduced to 3, but they are clocked at 2Ghz as well.
Talking about the GPU performance, it has been improved to give a 25% better performance and 45% better power efficiency. It supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and up to LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage format. Thus, phones powered by Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will offer faster read/write speeds.
Display Upgrades
In terms of display, the chipset will support a QHD+ panel with up to 144Hz or 4K display at 60Hz, and AV1 video decoding.
Security Upgrades
Data privacy has become a very important aspect of the modern era, and thus Qualcomm has kept that at the front and center of its new SoC. With Snapdragon Secure, the Snapdragon 8 Gen platform offers the latest technologies in terms of cryptography, key management, attestation, and more. This will keep all your data safe and secure.
Media Consumption
The chipset supports 48kHz lossless music streaming and latency as low as 48ms. It will help gamers communicate with other players in-game.
Camera upgrades
When we talk about cameras, the chipset is optimized to work with Sony DOL-HDR sensors and Samsung’s new 200MP HP3 sensor. The new sensor is rumored to debut on the Galaxy S23 Ultra while the Motorola Edge 30 Ultra will come with an ISOCELL HP1 sensor. This new sensor will give more clarity even if users take a screenshot of a zoomed-in area. The 108MP sensor will also have zero shutter lag. It will allow video recording up to 8K HDR video and 30fps, 4K at 120fps, and Dolby Vision recording as well, all thanks to the AV1 codec for support.
Smartphones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC
At the Summit, Qualcomm announced a partnership with OEMs like Asus ROG, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, RedMagic, Redmi, Sharp, Sony, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE, as all these will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset on their new smartphones. Click on the link below to know the names of the smartphones that are expected with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset.
Check out smartphones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Chipset list
These phones are expected to launch by the end of 2022, though their launch dates have not been confirmed yet.
