Qualcomm unveiled new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile processor
It was coming; the new mobile processor from Qualcomm! And finally it is coming by the end of the year, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This mobile processor is for smartphones running on Android and will be a new high-end processor. Read more about this new chip soon! Little warning; it's going to get a little technical.
Specifications
Basically, all manufacturers of high-end Android devices are adopting Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8x processor. Think of devices from Samsung, Xiaomi and Motorola, among others. Therefore, it is not surprising that Qualcomm mentions these phone manufacturers in their press release about the new processor. Like its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the Gen 2 is built on TSMC's 4nm process. Qualcomm hopes to achieve a substantial speed gain by adopting a new ARM design and higher clock speeds.
The octa-core Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor consists of one Prime core at up to 3.2 GHz (ARM Cortex-X3), four powerful Performance cores at 2.8 GHz (ARM Cortex A715) and three economical Efficiency cores at 2.0 Ghz (ARM Cortex A510). So, that was quite a mouthful.
Faster AI engine
Qualcomm says the new processor is going to be 10% faster and 30% more efficient. In addition, the new processor will be 40% more energy efficient. As a result, games on your phone, for example, will run a lot smoother. But what the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 especially excels at are AI calculations. The software that uses the AI engine is up to 4.35x faster than its predecessor. In addition, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 gets a new X70 5G modem and supports WiFi 7. The new soc supports LP-DDR5x working memory up to 4200MHz, up from 3200MHz in the previous generation. As with its predecessor, the chip supports up to 16GB of working memory. Also supported for the first time is the AV1 codec for video playback of 8K HDR images at 60 frames per second.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 likely optimized for the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra
Qualcomm claims we are going to see the chipset back in devices from Samsung, Motorola, Asus, Honor, OnePlus, Redmi, Sony, OPPO, Vivo and Xiaomi, among others. Rumors now suggest that the upcoming Galaxy S23 will run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This could be true since the Gen 2 is optimized for Samsung's ISOCELL HP3 sensor. This 200 megapixel camera sensor is likely to come in the S23 Ultra.
