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| Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset |
Qualcomm has released the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 smartphone chip, which offers a preview of the most powerful smartphone brain of 2022.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is the successor to last year's Snapdragon 888, and is the first chipset to adopt Qualcomm's new naming scheme and abandon the three-digit number system Qualcomm previously used.
Unsurprisingly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is Qualcomm's first chip to feature Arm's latest Armv9 architecture.
The Kryo octa-core chipset includes 1 3.0 GHz core based on Cortex-X2, 3 2.5 GHz performance cores based on Cortex-A710, and 4 1.8 GHz core based on Cortex-A510.
Additionally, the new chip has been switched from the 5nm process used to build the Snapdragon 888 to a 4nm process.
The company has promised that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 can improve performance by up to 20% and power efficiency by up to 30% over the previous year's model.
At the same time, the new Adreno GPU promises 30% faster graphics rendering and 25% power efficiency compared to Snapdragon 888.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 also supports Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth Low Energy audio (first developed by Qualcomm), and the company's Snapdragon Sound technology for AptX lossless audio.
Like Qualcomm's best processors, the company is focusing on advanced camera features, which the company first introduced under the new Snapdragon Sight branding.
Qualcomm promises faster performance and better cameras
Even though the Spectra ISP is a triple ISP, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 updates things to an 18-bit system.
Thus the camera data has increased by 4,096 times and the dynamic range by four values, which is suitable for very bright or very dark scenes.
The ISP's triple image signal processor also enables capturing 240 12MP images in one second. Or when recording 64MP still photos, simultaneous 8K and HDR recording. The transfer speed is increased to 3.2 giga pixels per second.
Qualcomm also offers advanced camera features. It includes support for 8K video recording with HDR 10 Plus and 18-bit RAW recording.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 also brings various other image improvements. Data of up to 30 photos can be used at the same time, including the best photos in dark mode.
There are also many improved AI processing techniques as well as improved auto exposure technology. There's also autofocus, automatic face detection, and a bokeh engine that specifically adds portrait effects to 4K videos. The company offers an Ultra Wide Angle Engine that can detect and eliminate chromatic aberrations in the lens.
Qualcomm has also added a fourth ISP, a dedicated discovery center located on top of the SoC. It is different from the main camera's triple ISP. The new ISP was developed specifically to provide cameras with constant power and always on.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is equipped with the latest hexa processor and 7th generation AI engine. The company claims that its speed is four times faster than its predecessor and that fuel efficiency has increased 1.7 times.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 adds a new level of security at the hardware level with a dedicated trust management engine. In addition to support for the Android Ready SE standard, digital car keys, driver's licenses, ID cards, and electronic money wallets are also supported.