Qualcomm announces its new chipset for mobile terminals, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. The premium chip retains the characteristics of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, but promises to provide devices that use it with much better autonomy.
On the occasion of an event organized in China and on the sidelines of the announcement of its Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 platform, which we imagine will equip many mid-range smartphones, Qualcomm presents today (May 20 2022) the evolution of the most advanced of the moment, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Now stamped “+”, it brings improvements that we look forward to testing in our laboratories.
Autonomy is now in the sights of Qualcomm, which promises that its Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 contains a less energy-consuming CPU. Still based on Kryo cores, however clocked at 3.2 GHz instead of 3 GHz for more power, it is supposed to provide 10% higher execution speed and 30% better energy efficiency than the previous generation. of the SoC. Good news insofar as the spearheads of mobile manufacturers equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 have rarely shown themselves in the field of endurance. Qualcomm also adds that its chip remains geared towards graphics performance where, again, power consumption should be reduced by up to 30%, despite a 10% increase in performance.
Focus on endurance
More concretely, Qualcomm mentions an increase in phone call autonomy of more than 5 hours, and even 17 hours in audio playback, or the possibility of “browse on social networks for an additional 40 min”. This theoretical comparison is valid for a smartphone equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, of which Qualcomm does not specify the exact battery capacity. We will therefore essentially remember that the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is supposed to bring a substantial gain in autonomy, whatever the use made of the mobile.
To improve its SoC, Qualcomm turned to another founder, as recalled AnandTech. Partner until then of Samsung, the American opted this time for TSMC, whose manufacturing processes could partly explain the better management of the heating of the chip. Remember that the engraving, announced in 4 nm regardless of the founder, is not equivalent among the two partners of Qualcomm.
For the rest, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 adopts the same characteristics as its predecessor: photo sensors up to 200 megapixels, video capture in 8K HDR, screens up to 3K at 60 Hz or even 5G X65 modem.
First smartphones expected this summer
This iteration of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is expected shortly, since Qualcomm announces its appearance in the first terminals in the third quarter of 2022, i.e. during the summer. Among its first customers, we note the mention of Asus (for its ROG gaming range), Honor, Motorola, Oppo, Xiaomi, Realme or even OnePlus, whose 10 Ultra model is long overdue.