The company’s top-of-the-line chipset has undergone several upgrades. Even though the old Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was never slow, heat and power consumption were two of its biggest problems. The new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (SM8475) offers minor speed increases while also conserving significant power.
As a result of this, Qualcomm claims a 10% increase in CPU performance and a 30% increase in power efficiency. As of early 2021, the maximum clock speed of the Cortex-X2 core can match that of the Snapdragon 870. (the X2 in the original 8 Gen 1 topped out at 3.0Ghz).
Here are the new frequencies for the other two CPU clusters: At 3.2GHz, the Prime core, Gold cores, and Silver core all clock in at 2.75GHz. This is an increase from 3.0GHz, 2.5GHz, and 1.8GHz, respectively.
Additionally, the GPU works at a 10 percent higher frequency and consumes 30 percent less power. There is a 20% improvement in the AI engine’s power efficiency. In addition, wireless modems have improved in efficiency.
Across all SoCs, a 15 percent increase in power efficiency has been made. A phone with the same chipset can stream video for 1 hour and 30 minutes longer than one with the old processor, to put it in more practical words. A relatively light load, making phone calls, can now be extended by 5 hours and 30 minutes (the rest of the hardware being equal).
Qualcomm had to switch foundries in order to achieve these advancements; the technique is still referred to as “4nm,” but it originates from TSMC rather than Samsung.
Those are the official numbers for performance and efficiency gains. What is the actual performance of the chip? The ROG Engineering gadget was supplied to us by Asus for testing, and we’ve put it through its paces in contrast to previous Snapdragon 8-series CPUs. Consider the fact that this ROG phone is not a commercial product, but rather a demonstration of the new chip’s capabilities.
The rest of the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1’s hardware is the same. UFS 3.1 storage is compatible with up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM (3,200MHz). When using the display driver, you can get up to 144Hz for QHD+ and up to 60Hz for 4K, with 10-bit rendering (Rec. 2020) and support for HDR10+.
FastConnect 6900 offers Wi-Fi 6/6E at up to 3.6GHz, while the Snapdragon X65 modem has theoretical peak rates of 10Gbps. aptX Lossless and Bluetooth LE Audio are two new features in Bluetooth 5.3. (with longer play times thanks to the improved efficiency).
Spectra ISP, with its triple 18-bit resolutions, supports up to 200MP sensors and 8K video capture at 30 frames per second (4K at 60 frames per second). The chipset also has a dedicated bokeh engine and supports HLG, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision formats in addition to multi-frame noise reduction and staggered HDR.
Again, the 8 Gen 1 has no issues with networking or picture processing power. As a result of strong workloads, temperatures rose and the battery dwindled in percentage.
First Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 devices are expected to be launched in Q3 of this year, according to Qualcomm (July-September). A huge list of makers are hard at work on these devices, as well. They’re all here in alphabetical order: from Black Shark to iQOO to Lenovo to Motorola to Nubia to OnePlus to Red Magic to Redmi to Xiaomi to ZTE, they’re all here.