During the Snapdragon Tech Summit, Qualcomm has announced the company's new flagship smartphone processor - the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 - the first chipset to adopt Qualcomm's new naming scheme.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is Qualcomm's first chip to use the latest Armv9 architecture, which means that the prime core is based on the Cortex-X2 running at 3.0 GHz. It will be backed by three performance cores based on the Cortex-A710 running at 2.5 GHz and four efficiency cores based on the Cortex-A510 running at 1.8 GHz. It is also the company's first 4nm chipset. According to Qualcomm, the new processor will offer up to 20% better performance and up to 30% more power efficiency than its predecessor.
As for its GPU, the new Adreno will be able to deliver 30% faster graphics rendering and reduce 25% power consumption compared to the Snapdragon 888. It will also offer a new GPU control panel to achieve a balance between performance and power efficiency when games are running.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip features the Snapdragon X65 modem, which builds on the existing mmWave and sub-6 GHz compatibility that came before while supporting up to 10 Gbps speeds and the latest 3GPP Release 16 specification. The chipset also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E, as well as Bluetooth LE Audio. The company's Snapdragon Sound technology enables it to stream CD-quality audio for wireless headphones.
Qualcomm has also enhanced the chip's camera capabilities, which the company bundles under a new "Snapdragon Sight" brand. The triple ISP (Image Signal Processor) system is upgraded to an 18-bit system, which translates to 4096 times more data and up to 4 additional stops of dynamic range for very bright or very dark environments. It also supports shooting 240 12 MP photos in a single second or simultaneously shooting in 8K with HDR as well as capturing 64 MP stills. Located in the dedicated sensing hub on the SoC is a fourth ISP, which is designed to power an always-on camera.
Security-wise, the chipset introduces the new Trust Management Engine, located below the hypervisor. The first batch of smartphones powered by the new Snapdragon chipset is expected to launch before the end of this year.
