Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is Now Official: Faster, More Efficient and Wi-Fi 7

Finally the most awaited chipset is now official. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset unveiled with improved performance on all fronts compared to the Gen 1 model. This chip is formally known as the SM8550-AB and is fabbed on a 4nm node. Here are more details about its components.

CPU and GPU

Qualcomm has focused on improving power efficiency. The new Kryo CPU trio delivers up to 35% higher performance with up to 40% highr efficiency.

The clock speeds are the same as on the 8+ Gen 1, but the core composition is not. The single Kryo Prime core (based on Cortex-X3) runs at 3.2GHz to deliver high single-threaded performance. This time around, however, it is backed by four Performance cores to better handle multi-threaded workloads. These cores run at 2.8GHz. Finally, there are three Efficiency cores at 2.0GHz.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is Now Official: Faster, More Efficient and Wi-Fi 7

The new chipset brings support for new, faster memory technologies. For RAM it works with LP-DDR5X at up to 4,200MHz. For storage it can use the new UFS 4.0 format. The latest Adreno GPU promises up to 25% higher performance with up to 45% higher power efficiency.

Additionally, the chipset has come with support for hardware accelerated ray tracing. The ray tracing hardware is already available from the major chipset vendors for Android, we may see mobile game developers embrace the new tech like they did on PC and console. Also, this GPU is the first to support Vulkan 1.3 (along with OpenGL ES 3.2).

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can drive on-device displays with QHD+ resolution at up to 144Hz or 4K ones at up to 60Hz. It also supports external displays up to 4K at 60Hz. Qualcomm also finally enabled AV1 video decoding – streams up to 8K at 60fps.

Cameras

Qualcomm boasts that Sony sensors with Digital Overlap HDR (DOL-HDR) and Samsung’s 200MP HP3 have been optimized to work with the Snapdragon ISP. Like its predecessor, the Gen 2 brings a triple 18-bit ISP that can handle up to three 36MP cameras (30fps) simultaneously or go up to 200PM for a single camera. 108MP sensors are supported with zero shutter lag.

For video, the chipset can record 8K HDR footage at 30fps and capture 64MP photos simultaneously, 4K at 120fps and do slow-motion videos too. It supports several HDR formats including HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision. Using DOL sensors, it can capture up to four exposures for each frame of video.

Connectivity

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 upgrades to the new Snapdragon X70 modem. It supports both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G, of course. Its peak downlink speeds are 10Gbps, peak uplink is 3.5Gbps. This modem supports Dual-SIM, Dual-Active (DSDA) operation where two 5G SIMs (or 5G+4G) are active at the same time.

Local connectivity brings features the upcoming Wi-Fi 7 standard (802.11be), thanks to the new FastConnect 78000 system. It tops out at 5.8Gbps (up from 3.6Gbps on the previous chip). The FastConnect system has Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. With the latest Snapdragon Sound system it can deliver 48kHz lossless music streaming as well as the lowest-ever 48ms latency for gaming.

AI

The new Hexagon processor introduces support for a new INT4 format for the first time on a mobile Qualcomm chip. It promises 60% better performance per Watt than previous techniques.

Qualcomm claims that AI performance has been increased 4.35x. That power can be roped into helping the camera by recognizing which parts of the image are a face, hair, clothes, background and so on and applying processing differently to them.

The Upcoming Devices

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will be available in different smartphones. The press release lists different brands including: Asus ROG, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, Red Magic, Sharp, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi, Meizu and ZTE.

Check Also: Qualcomm Confirms Samsung Galaxy S23 Series will Use Only Snapdragon Chipsets