The Best Features and Specifications of The Qualqomm Senapdragon Gen 2 Chipset

Qualcomm unveiled its new flagship, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. When compared to the Gen 1 model, performance has improved on all fronts. This chip is officially known as the SM8550-AB and is manufactured on a 4nm node. More information on the components can be found below.

CPU to GPU

Qualcomm has been working to improve power efficiency, and the new chip is a significant improvement. The new Kryo CPU trio provides up to 35% more performance while also increasing efficiency by up to 40%.

The clock speed is identical to that of the 8+ Gen 1, but the core composition is not. To provide high single-threaded performance, a single Kryo Prime core (based on Cortex-X3) runs at 3.2GHz (3.1872GHz to be exact). This time, it's backed by four Performance cores (rather than three) to handle multi-threaded workloads better - these cores run at 2.8GHz. Finally, there are three (rather than four) 2.0GHz Efficiency cores.

Support for newer, faster memory technologies is included in Gen 2. It supports RAM speeds of up to 4,200MHz with the LP-DDR5X. (up from the LP-DDR5 at 3,200MHz). You can use the new UFS 4.0 format for storage (up from UFS 3.1).

The latest Adreno GPU promises up to 25% higher performance while using up to 45% less power. It also adds hardware-accelerated ray tracing support to the Snapdragon platform. Now that ray tracing hardware is available for Android from major chip vendors, we may see mobile game developers embrace the new technology in the same way that they did on PCs and consoles. Furthermore, this GPU is the first to support Vulkan 1.3. (along with OpenGL ES 3.2).

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can power displays with QHD+ resolution up to 144Hz or 4K resolution up to 60Hz. It also supports external displays with resolutions of up to 4K at 60Hz (as well as a 10-bit Rec. 2020 color gamut, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision). Qualcomm has also enabled AV1 video decoding, which supports up to 8K streaming at 60 frames per second (with HDR).

Camera

Sony's sensor with Digital Overlap HDR (DOL-HDR) and Samsung's HP3 200MP have been optimized to work with Snapdragon ISPs, according to Qualcomm. The Gen 2 has a triple 18-bit ISP, like its predecessor, and can handle up to three 36MP (30fps) cameras at the same time, or up to 200PM for a single camera. A 108MP sensor was supported, with no shutter lag.

The chipset can record 8K HDR footage at 30fps (while also taking 64MP photos), 4K at 120fps, and slow motion videos (720p at 960fps). It is compatible with several HDR formats, including HDR10+, HLG, and Dolby Vision. It can capture up to four exposures for each video frame using the DOL sensor.

Connectivity

The new Snapdragon X70 modem is included in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 upgrade. Of course, it supports mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G. The maximum downlink speed is 10Gbps, and the maximum uplink speed is 3.5Gbps (similar to its predecessor).

This modem supports Dual-SIM, Dual-Active (DSDA) operation, which allows two 5G (or 5G+4G) SIMs to be active at the same time.

The new FastConnect 7800 system supports the upcoming Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be) standard for local connectivity. Its maximum speed is 5.8Gbps (up from 3.6Gbps on the previous chip). Aside from speed, the new standard reduces latency (Qualcomm calls it "wire-like").

The FastConnect system, as previously stated, supports Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. It can deliver 48kHz lossless music streaming as well as the lowest 48ms latency for gaming thanks to the latest Snapdragon Sound system.

There's not much to say about wired connectivity - the chip supports USB 3.1 and Quick Charge 5. (which just wraps around the USB Power Delivery standard).

AI

For the first time on a Qualcomm mobile chip, the new Hexagon processor supports the new INT4 format. It promises a 60% improvement in performance per Watt over the previous technique.

Hexagon is also faster in general; Qualcomm claims that AI performance has increased 4.35x. This ability can be used to assist the camera by recognizing which parts of an image are faces, hair, clothes, backgrounds, and so on, and then applying different processing to those parts.

Coming soon

Qualcomm listed the following Android manufacturers in its press release: Asus ROG, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, Red Magic, Sharp, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi, Meizu, and ZTE.

It continues by stating that the first phones based on Gen 2 will be available before the end of this year, but it does not specify which manufacturer will be the first. Samsung and the upcoming S23 series were not mentioned.