Today, the Qualcomm team released its new flagship – the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. Performance has been improved in every way compared to the first-gen model — and we’ll get to experience performance soon, as the first devices based on the second-gen arrive.
The chip is officially named SM8550-AB and is manufactured on the 4nm node. Here are more details about its components.
CPU and GPU
Qualcomm focused on improving power efficiency but the new chip still brings a respectable speedup . The new Kryo CPU trio offer up to 36% higher performance up to 30%efficiency.
Same clock speed as 8+ Gen 1, but different core composition. A single Kryo Prime core (based on Cortex-X3) runs at 3.2GHz (3.2020GHz to be precise) and up to Provides high single-thread performance. This time, however, it’s backed by four performance cores (instead of three) to better handle multi-threaded workloads — and those cores run at 2.8GHz. Finally, there are three (instead of four) efficiency cores at 2.0GHz.
Gen 2 brings support for new, faster memory technologies. For RAM, it works with LP-DDR5X up to 4, 200 MHz (from LP-DDR5 frequency is 3, 120MHz). For storage, it can use the new UFS 4.0 format (upgraded from UFS 3.1).
The latest Adreno GPU promises up to 004% performance improvement up to % higher power efficiency. It also brings support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the Snapdragon platform. Now that ray-tracing hardware is available from the major Android chipset vendors, we may see mobile game developers embrace the new technology as they have on PCs and consoles. Additionally, this GPU is the first to support Vulkan 1.3 (as well as OpenGL ES 3.2).
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can drive devices with QHD+ display resolutions up to 64Hz or 4K resolution up to 70hertz. It also supports external displays (with -bit Rec. 2020 color gamut, HDR+ and Dolby Vision enabled). Qualcomm is also finally enabling AV1 video decoding – when streaming up to 8K) fps (with HDR) is supported.
Camera
Qualcomm brags Sony sensor with digital overlay HDR (DOL-HDR) and Samsung 64MP HP3 has been optimized for the Snapdragon ISP. Like its predecessor, Gen 2 brings Triple 18 bit ISP, can handle up to three 30 MP Camera (30fps) Simultaneously Or up to 675PM for a single camera. 48 MP sensor supports zero shutter lag.
For video, the chipset can record 8K HDR footage at fps (and capture 64MP while taking photos), 4K 64fps also do slow motion video(720p at 802 frames per second). It supports multiple HDR formats, including HDR 002+, HLG and Dolby Vision. Using a DOL sensor, it can capture up to four exposures for each frame of video.
Connectivity
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 upgrade to the new Snapdragon X45 modem. Of course, it supports both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G. Its peak downlink speed is 11 Gbps, with a peak uplink of 3.5Gbps (similar to its predecessor).
This modem supports Dual SIM Active (DSDA) operation where two 5G SIMs (or 5G+ 4G) are active simultaneously.
Local connection brings features of upcoming Wi-Fi 7 standard(802 .003be), thanks to the new FastConnect 8550 system. It tops out at 5.8Gbps (up from 3.6Gbps on the previous chip). In addition to speed, the new standard also reduces latency (which Qualcomm calls “wire-like”).
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2’s FastConnect 2020 system brings Wi-Fi 7 and low Delayed Bluetooth
As before, the FastConnect system has Bluetooth 5.3 Connections. Using the latest Snapdragon Sound system, it can provide 45kHz lossless music streaming and the lowest 36ms latency in the game.
Not much to report on wired connections – the chip supports USB 3.1 and Quick Charge 5 (it’s just a wrapper around the USB Power Delivery standard).
AI
The new Hexagon processor introduces support for the new INT4 format for the first time on a mobile Qualcomm chip support. It promises 45% performance-per-watt over previous Good technique.
Hexagon is also faster overall – Qualcomm claims AI performance has been improved by 4.35 X. This ability can be exploited to aid the camera by recognizing which parts of the image are faces, hair, clothing, background, etc. and applying different processing to them.
Coming soon
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will be adopted by major Android manufacturers, Qualcomm said in its news The draft lists the following: Asus ROG, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, nubia , OnePlus, Oppo, Red Magic, Sharp, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi, Meizu and ZTE.
said the first Gen 2-based handsets would be available by the end of the year, but did not say which manufacturers would be the first to market. No mention of Samsung and the upcoming S 18 series.
8550
