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Qualcomm Technologies has launched the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset, which is built on the 4nm process technology and brings a new era of mobile chipsets.
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The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will power flagships from various brands, including Black Shark, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Redmi, SHARP, Sony, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE. The first commercial device with the Snapdragon 8 will be available by the end of 2021. This means you can expect a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1-powered phone or two in December.
Display: The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 supports a 4K display with 60 Hz and a QHD+ panel at 144Hz. For external display, the chipset has support for up to 4K at 60Hz, 10-bit colour depth, HDR10, and HDR10+.
AI-Engine: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is equipped with a 7th generation Qualcomm AI Engine that offers ultra-high performance. The efficient Qualcomm Hexagon processor features a 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x larger shared memory than the predecessor. Qualcomm says it can capture pro-quality images thanks to the integration of Leica Leitz look filters. The AI-based natural language processing from Hugging Face can intelligently function as your personal assistant by prioritizing and analyzing your notifications.
Qualcomm says that it's working with Sonde Health to use on-device AI to accelerate their models that can analyse a user's vocal pattern to determine if they're at risk of any health conditions such as asthma, depression, and even COVID-19. The new always-on AI system is powered by the 3rd generation Qualcomm Sensing Hub with more data streams being processed using the lower power AI.
Connectivity: The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is equipped with Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System. The chipset supports 5G mmWave and sub-6 GHz, standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) modes, FDD, TDD, Dynamic Spectrum Sharing, 2x2 MIMO, Sub-6 GHz: 300 MHz bandwidth, 4x4 MIMO, Qualcomm 5G PowerSave 2.0, Qualcomm Smart Transmit 2.0 technology, Qualcomm Wideband Envelope Tracking, Qualcomm AI-Enhanced Signal Boost and Global 5G multi-SIM. It is the most advanced 5G mobile platform and is the world's first 5G modem RF-System to reach 10 Gigabit download speeds.
The chip features the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System supporting the fastest Wi-Fi speeds available, up to 3.6 Gbps over Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E. It supports unparalleled Bluetooth audio with Snapdragon Sound Technology for an immersive audio experience as well as the new LE audio implementation. The Snapdragon Sound supports Qualcomm aptX Lossless Technology for CD-quality audio.
Camera: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is claimed to take photography to the next levels with the Snapdragon Sight Technology that features the first 18-bit ISP ever created for mobile. It can capture over 400x more camera data than its predecessor for extreme dynamic range, colour and sharpness at a shutter speed of up to 3.2 Gbps. It is also the first chip to record Dolby Vision 8K HDR video and in the premium HDR10+ format. There's a new Bokeh Engine as well as other modes like Portrait Mode for video capture.
The Snapdragon 8 is also equipped with a fourth separate ISP, a new Always-On ISP that allows the camera to run with extremely low power consumption. It supports up to 36MP triple camera at 30fps with zero shutter lag, up to 64MP + 36MP dual camera, up to 108MP single camera, and up to 200MP photo capture. There's multi-frame noise reduction, locally motion-compensated staggered/digital overlap HDR dual-sensor support, AI-based face detection, auto-focus, and auto-exposure.
Gaming: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 features over 50 Snapdragon Elite Gaming features. It is claimed to deliver ultra-smooth responsiveness, colour-rich HDR scenes and desktop-level capabilities. The new Adreno GPU offers a 30 percent boost in graphics rendering capabilities and 25 percent better power savings compared to the previous generation. The Adreno Frame Motion Engine can generate twice as many frames while maintaining the same power consumption. There's variable rate shading Pro to offer better control on the game for developers to further tune the performance.
Audio: The Snapdragon 8 features Bluetooth 5.2 and Snapdragon Sound Technology for better sound quality. The Qualcomm aptX Lossless Technology offers CD-quality lossless wireless audio. It is the first Snapdragon mobile chipset to support all-new LE audio features such as broadcast audio, stereo recording, and voice back-channel for gaming.
Security: Snapdragon 8 features vault-like security to protect users' data. It is the first Snapdragon platform to feature a dedicated Trust Management Engine to achieve heightened security. It has Android Ready SE, which is a new standard for digital car keys, drivers' licenses, and more. Additionally, the Qualcomm Secure Processing Unit has
support for iSIM, an integrated SIM card so users can securely connect to cellular networks without a SIM card.
Others: The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 features hardware-accelerated H.265 and VP9 decoder and HDR Playback Codec support for HDR10+, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision. The chipset supports LPDDR5 memory up to 3200 MHz memory, up to 16GB RAM, Quick Charge 5 technology, GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC, and Dual-Frequency GNSS (L1/L5). There's support for USB 3.1 and USB Type-C.