During the annual Snapdragon Tech Summit 2021, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. introduced its latest premium 5G mobile platform, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The new Snapdragon 8 leads the way into a new era of premium mobile technology equipped with cutting-edge 5G, AI, gaming, camera, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies to transform the next generation of flagship devices. Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will be adopted by global OEMs and brands including Black Shark, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Redmi, SHARP, Sony Corporation, vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE, with commercial devices 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.”
Qualcomm provided the following information on features of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1:
- Connectivity: Equipped with the 4th gen Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System, the new Snapdragon 8 is the most advanced 5G mobile platform and the world’s first 5G modem-RF solution to reach 10 Gigabit download speeds. Snapdragon 8 features the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System supporting the fastest Wi-Fi speeds available—up to 3.6 Gbps—over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E to ensure games and apps perform smoothly, even with multiple devices on one network.
- Camera: This new premium mobile platform takes smartphone photography beyond pro. Snapdragon Sight Technology includes the first commercial 18-bit mobile ISP, capturing over 4000x more camera data than its predecessor for extreme dynamic range, color, and sharpness at staggering speeds up to 3.2 gigapixels per second. This is also the first 8K HDR video capture in a mobile platform and it’s capable of capturing in the premium HDR10+ format that’s loaded with over a billion shades of color. Video will look even more stunning thanks to the new Bokeh Engine which adds beautiful soft backgrounds to videos; it’s like Portrait Mode for video capture. Snapdragon 8 also includes a fourth separate ISP, the new Always-On ISP, which allows the camera to run with extremely low power consumption so users can experience always-on face unlocking and locking if your face isn’t present for heightened privacy.
- AI: The 7th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine is equipped with the ultra-high performance and efficient Qualcomm Hexagon processor, featuring a 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x larger shared memory than its predecessor. Users can capture pro-quality images thanks to intelligently integrated Leica Leitz Look filters—recreating their legendary bokeh effect. The latest AI-based natural language processing from Hugging Face can intelligently serve as your personal assistant by prioritizing and analyzing your notifications. Working with Sonde Health, we are using on-device AI to accelerate their models that can analyze a user’s vocal patterns to determine if a user is at risk for health conditions such as asthma, depression, and Covid-19. Also, a new always-on AI system is powered by the 3rd Gen Qualcomm Sensing Hub with more data streams being processed using lowest power AI.
- Gaming: With over 50 Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, Snapdragon 8 delivers ultra-smooth responsiveness, color-rich HDR scenes at the highest visual quality, and desktop-level capabilities that are mobile-firsts. The new Qualcomm Adreno GPU provides a 30% boost in graphics rendering capabilities and 25% improvement in power savings compared to the previous generation to unlock a new generation of mobile GPUs. The platform delivers, Adreno Frame Motion Engine to can generate twice as many frames while maintaining the same power consumption. Another mobile-first feature is Variable Rate Shading Pro to provide a finer grain of control for game developers to further tune game performance. Desktop-level Volumetric rendering brings unrivaled realism to fog, smoke, and particle effects that have been optimized for mobile by Qualcomm Technologies’ in-house Snapdragon Studios.
- Sound: Users can experience a new class of crisp, crystal-clear voice and music with integrated Bluetooth 5.2 and Snapdragon Sound Technology, now featuring Qualcomm aptX Lossless Technology for CD-quality lossless wireless audio. This is the first Snapdragon mobile platform to support new LE audio features such as broadcast audio, stereo recording, and voice back-channel for gaming.
- Security: Snapdragon 8 features vault-like security to help keep users’ data protected. This is the first Snapdragon platform to feature a dedicated Trust Management Engine to achieve heightened security and provide additional Root of Trust for apps and services. Snapdragon 8 is also the world’s first mobile platform to feature Android Ready SE—the new standard for digital car keys, drivers’ licenses, and more. Additionally, the Qualcomm Secure Processing Unit features support for iSIM, an integrated SIM card so users can easily and securely connect to cellular networks without a SIM card.
For more information on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform, see the product brief.