Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. unveiled its next premium 5G mobile platform, Snapdragon® 8 Gen 1, during the annual Snapdragon Tech Summit 2021. The new Snapdragon 8 ushers in a new age of premium mobile technology, complete with cutting-edge 5G, AI, gaming, camera, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® capabilities that will alter the next generation of flagship smartphones.
Global OEMs and brands including Black Shark, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Redmi, SHARP, Sony Corporation, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, with commercial products expected by the end of 2021.
“As the world’s most advanced mobile platform, Snapdragon is synonymous with premium Android experiences, and the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 sets the standard for the next generation of flagship mobile devices,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager of mobile, compute, and infrastructure, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “It delivers connectivity, photography, AI, gaming, sound, and security experiences never before available in a smartphone.”
Key Features of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
Connectivity: The new Snapdragon 8 is the most sophisticated 5G mobile platform and the world’s first 5G modem-RF solution to deliver 10 Gigabit download speeds, thanks to its 4th generation Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System. Snapdragon 8 has the Qualcomm® FastConnectTM 6900 Mobile Connectivity System, which supports the highest Wi-Fi rates available—up to 3.6 Gbps—over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, ensuring that games and apps run quickly even when numerous devices are connected to the same network.
Camera: This new premium mobile platform elevates smartphone photography beyond the realm of the professional. Snapdragon SightTM Technology contains the industry’s first commercial 18-bit mobile ISP, which captures over 4000x more camera data than its predecessor for extraordinary dynamic range, color, and sharpness at astounding speeds of up to 3.2 gigapixels per second. This is also the first 8K HDR video capture in a mobile platform, and it can capture in the premium HDR10+ format, which has over a billion colors. The new Bokeh Engine, which provides wonderful soft backgrounds to movies, will make them appear even more amazing; it’s like Portrait Mode for video recording. The Snapdragon 8 also has a fourth distinct ISP, the new Always-On ISP, which enables the camera to function with incredibly low power consumption, allowing consumers to experience always-on face unlocking and locking if your face isn’t there for more privacy.
AI: The Qualcomm® HexagonTM processor powers the 7th Generation Qualcomm AI Engine, which has a 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x greater shared memory than its predecessor. Thanks to the smartly integrated Leica Leitz Look filters, users can shoot pro-quality photographs while replicating the iconic bokeh effect. Hugging Face’s newest AI-powered natural language processing can intelligently act as your assistant by sorting and analyzing your alerts. We are collaborating with Sonde Health to speed their models that can assess a user’s speech patterns to predict if a user is at risk for health issues such as asthma, depression, and COVID-19 using on-device AI. In addition, the 3rd Gen Qualcomm® Sensing Hub powers a new always-on AI system that processes additional data streams utilizing low-power AI.
Gaming: With over 50 Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, the Snapdragon 8 provides ultra-smooth responsiveness, color-rich HDR scenes with the best visual clarity, and mobile-first desktop-level capabilities. When compared to the previous generation, the new Qualcomm® AdrenoTM GPU delivers a 30% increase in graphics rendering capabilities and a 25% improvement in power conservation, enabling a new generation of mobile GPUs. The platform has an Adreno Frame Motion Engine that can create twice as many frames while using the same amount of power. Variable Rate Shading Pro is another mobile-first feature that allows game makers to fine-tune game performance with a finer grain of control. Volumetric rendering at the desktop level adds unsurpassed realism to fog, smoke, and particle effects developed for smartphones by Qualcomm Technologies’ in-house Snapdragon Studios.
Sound: With integrated Bluetooth 5.2 and Snapdragon SoundTM Technology, users can experience a new class of crisp, crystal-clear voice and music, including Qualcomm® aptXTM Lossless Technology for CD-quality lossless wireless audio. This is the first Snapdragon mobile platform to provide brand-new LE audio features including broadcast audio, stereo recording, and voice back-channel for gaming.
Protection: The Snapdragon 8 has vault-like security to help keep users’ data safe. This is the first Snapdragon platform to have a dedicated Trust Management Engine for increased security and extra Root of Trust for apps and services. The Snapdragon 8 is also the world’s first mobile platform to support Android Ready SE, the new standard for digital auto keys, driver’s licenses, and other biometrics. In addition, the Qualcomm® Secure Processing Unit supports iSIM, an integrated SIM card that allows users to connect to cellular networks without a SIM card.
