Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, its newest chipset. It’s an iterative upgrade to the existing Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 that runs on most flagship phones, including the Xiaomi 12 Pro. Meanwhile, there has been an improvement in CPU and GPU performance, while Qualcomm promised a lower power consumption.
The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 uses TSMC’s 4nm manufacturing process – a switch from Samsung’s 4nm node. For this change, the processor has seen a 15% power efficiency while the CPU and GPU performance has improved by 10%. Hence, we expect, Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 phones to have some improvements over their predecessors.
There’s an enhanced single prime core (Cortex-X2) clocked at 3.2Ghz, three performance cores (Cortex A710) clocked at 2.8GHz, and four efficiency cores (Cortex A510) clocked at 2.0GHz. Adreno 730 GPU, which runs at 900Mhz, boasts 10% faster-clocked speeds while promising a 30% reduction in power consumption.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 phones will support 4k panels at 60Hz and QHD+ displays at 144Hz. The triple 18-bit Qualcomm Spectra ISP means phones with the chip can house up to 200MP camera sensors. There’s support for X65 5G modem with mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G connection. With the modem, downlink speed can reach 10Gbps, perhaps not on mobile phones.
The Qualcomm AI Engine present is the 7th Gen and promises up to 20% improved performance per watt compared to the predecessor. While there hasn’t been any significant improvement, Bluetooth 5.3 comes in place of Bluetooth 5.2.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 phones
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 phones are expected in Q2 2022. We will see the Xiaomi 12 Ultra debut with the SoC in the coming weeks, while Black Shark also has something up its sleeves. Asus ROG, Honor, iQOO, Lenovo, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, OSOM, Realme, RedMagic, Redmi, Vivo, and ZTE have plans to release a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 phone soon.
