New Delhi: Chip-making giant Qualcomm has officially unveiled its next-generation premium 5G chipset for flagship Android devices, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Announced at the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2021, the new Snapdragon 8 chipset packs features such as cutting-edge 5G, AI, gaming, camera, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies, in a bid to transform the next generation of flagship smartphones.


The smartphone OEMs that will include the top-tier Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset will be Black Shark, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Redmi, Sharp, Sony Corporation, Vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE, with more devices are expected by the end of 2021, the company noted.


“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,” Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager of mobile, compute, and infrastructure, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc, said in a statement.


“It delivers connectivity, photography, AI, gaming, sound, and security experiences never before available in a smartphone," Katouzian added.


Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 specifications 


Connectivity


Equipped with the 4th gen Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System, the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1is the most advanced 5G mobile platform and the world’s first 5G modem-RF solution to reach 10 Gigabit download speeds. Snapdragon 8 features Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System with 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


This new premium mobile platform takes smartphone photography beyond pro, Qualcomm said. Snapdragon Sight Technology includes the first 18-bit ISP ever created for mobile, capturing over 4000x more camera data than its predecessor for extreme dynamic range, colour 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 colour.


Videos will look even more stunning thanks to the new Bokeh Engine which adds beautiful soft backgrounds to videos; it’s like Portrait Mode for video capture. Snapdragon 8 also includes a fourth separate ISP, the new Always-On ISP, which allows the camera to run with extremely low power consumption so users can experience always-on face unlocking and locking if your face isn’t present for heightened privacy.


Artificial Intelligence  


The 7th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine is equipped with ultra-high performance and efficient Qualcomm Hexagon processor, featuring a 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x larger shared memory than its predecessor. Users can capture pro-quality images, thanks to intelligently integrated Leica Leitz Look filters—recreating their bokeh effect. The latest AI-based natural language processing from Hugging Face can intelligently serve as your personal assistant by prioritizing and analyzing your notifications. Working with Sonde Health, we are using on-device AI to accelerate their models that can analyze a user’s vocal patterns to determine if a user is at risk for health conditions such as asthma, depression, and COVID-19.


Also, a new always-on AI system is powered by the 3rd Gen Qualcomm Sensing Hub with more data streams being processed using lowest power AI.


Gaming:


With over 50 Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, Snapdragon 8 delivers ultra-smooth responsiveness, colour-rich HDR scenes at the highest visual quality, and desktop- level capabilities that are mobile-firsts.


The new Qualcomm Adreno GPU provides a 30 per cent boost in graphics rendering capabilities and 25 per cent improvement in power savings compared to the previous generation to unlock a new generation of mobile GPUs. The platform delivers, Adreno Frame Motion Engine to can generate twice as many frames while maintaining the same power consumption.


Another mobile-first feature is Variable Rate Shading Pro to provide a finer grain of control for game developers to further tune game performance. Desktop-level Volumetric rendering brings unrivaled realism to fog, smoke, and particle effects that have been optimized for mobile by Qualcomm Technologies’ in-house Snapdragon Studios.


Sound


Users can experience a new class of crisp, crystal-clear voice and music with integrated Bluetooth 5.2 and Snapdragon Sound Technology, now featuring Qualcomm aptX Lossless Technology for CD-quality lossless wireless audio, according to Qualcomm. This is the first Snapdragon mobile platform to support all-new LE audio features such as broadcast audio, stereo recording, and voice back-channel for gaming.


Security


Snapdragon 8 features vault-like security to help keep users’ data protected. 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, and more. Additionally, the Qualcomm Secure Processing Unit features support for iSIM, an integrated SIM card so users can easily and securely connect to cellular networks without a SIM card.