Qualcomm has unveiled two new smartphone processors — the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 and Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. The former is the usual mid-year refresh of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 launched in late 2021. The latter, on the other hand, is essentially the successor to last year’s Snapdragon 778G with the new naming scheme.
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 specifications and features
The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is still based on a 4nm process node, but it’s manufactured by TSMC (Samsung manufactured the preceding solution). We were expecting it to be more power-efficient thanks to TSMC’s advanced chip fabrication tech, and the company didn’t disappoint us. Qualcomm is touting the new chipset to bring some notable power and performance boosts.
According to the company, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is up to 10 percent faster in both CPU and GPU departments. The chipset has its CPU clocked at 3.2GHz. These upgrades will allow for ultra-smooth responsiveness, not just in day-to-day usage, but in heavy gaming as well. Qualcomm says the chipset will enable desktop-level gaming capabilities on phones.
The new processor also consumes 30 percent less power. Qualcomm’s 7th Gen AI Engine also enables up to 20 percent better performance per watt. In real life, this means additional gameplay of about an hour, 80 minutes of video streaming, or 5.5 hours of talk time.
Powered by Qualcomm’s X65 5G Modem-RF System, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is touted to deliver up to 10 Gbps of peak download speeds. It supports LPDDR5 RAM with a frequency of 3200MHz and can handle QHD+ resolution displays at a 144 Hz refresh rate. The chipset can also handle up to 200-megapixel cameras with 8K video recording in Dolby Vision and HDR10+ formats.
Other key specs include USB 3.1, Bluetooth 5.3, Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 tri-band Wi-Fi system with a peak speed of 3.6Gbps, global 5G multi-SIM, 5G uplink carrier aggregation, NFC, and 16-bit 44.1kHz CD-quality lossless music streaming. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 will start appearing inside devices from ASUS, Motorola, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and several other brands in Q3 2022.
Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 specifications and features
Targeted at premium mid-range smartphones, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 has its CPU clocked at 2.4GHz. This is also a 4nm chipset, and it comes with an improved Adreno GPU. It delivers over 20 percent faster graphics rendering compared to its predecessor, i.e. the Snapdragon 778G.
This chipset comes with an integrated 5G modem, but download speed tops up at 4.4Gbps. It does support LPDDR5 RAM, global 5G multi-SIM, tri-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC, USB 3.1, and up to 200-megapixel cameras. However, it can only capture 4K videos and FHD+ resolution displays at a refresh rate of 144 Hz.
The Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 uses Qualcomm’s 7th Gen AI Engine for up to 30 percent improved AI performance. It also features the company’s Trust Management Engine and Android Ready SE, a first for the Snapdragon 7-series processor. This chipset will start shipping inside phones this quarter. HONOR, OPPO, and Xiaomi will launch products with the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC in the coming months.
2022-05-20 15:04:57