Qualcomm introduced its latest premium 5G mobile platform, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, for flagship Android phones from Black Shark, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Redmi, SHARP, Sony Corporation, vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE. The first commercial devices based on the chip are 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.”
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 key features include the 4th gen Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System, which is the first 5G modem-RF solution to reach 10 Gigabit download speeds. Snapdragon 8 also 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: 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.
- AI: The 7th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine is equipped with a Qualcomm Hexagon processor, featuring a 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x larger shared memory than its predecessor.
- Gaming: 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.
- Sound: integrated Bluetooth 5.2 and Snapdragon Sound Technology, now featuring Qualcomm aptX Lossless Technology for CD-quality lossless wireless audio.
- Security: 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, etc.