Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform announced – Full Specifications, Features

Qualcomm has officially announced its latest flagship chipset for smartphones. It is dubbed as Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform.

The chipset houses Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System which is worlds first to support 10 Gigabit 5G. With Wi-Fi 6E, the chipset supports peak speeds of up to 3.6Gbps.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile platform feature in octa-cores based on ARM-V9 architecture. The consists of one 3GHz Cortex-X2 prime core + three 2.5GHz Cortex-A710 performance cores + four 1.8GHz Cortex-A510 based Efficiency cores.

The chipset is said to offer 20% performance improvements and 30% better power efficiency from its predecessor. It has all new next-generation Adreno GPU which performs 30% better and saves 25% more power than previous Generation GPU’s.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC comes with Snapdragon Sight Technology for better camera performance. It includes first 18-bit ISP ever created for mobile. It can capture 4000x more camera data than its predecessor. The ISP offers staggering speeds of up to 3.2 gigapixels per second.

The chipset can capture 8K HDR videos and supports HD10+ format. Qualcomm has included New Bokeh Engine, fourth separate ISP for low power consumption and face unlocking.

The new Qualcomm Snapdragon8 Gen1 houses 7th Generation Qualcomm AI Engine with optimized Qualcomm Hexagon Processor. It has 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x larger shared memory than its predecessor.

For security, it has dedicated Trust Management Engine. It is world’s first mobile platform to feature Android Ready SE – the new standard for digital car keys, driver’s licenses etc. The Qualcomm Secure Processing Unit offers support for iSIM, integrated SIM card.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform – Full Specifications

• Process: Samsung 4nm Process Technology
• CPU: 64-bit Octa-cores with ARMV9 Architecture
  • 1 x Up to 3.0GHz ARM Cortex-X2 based Prime Kryo core
  • 3 x Up to 2.50GHz ARM Cortex-A710 based Performance Kryo cores
  • 4 x Up to 1.8GHz ARM Cortex-A510 based Efficiency Kryo cores
• Visual Graphics subsystem:
  • Next Gen Adreno GPU
  • Vulkan 1.1 API support
  • HDR gaming (10-bit color depth, Rec. 2020 color gamut)
  • Physically Based Rendering
  • Volumetric Rendering
  • Adreno Frame Motion Engine
  • API Support: OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 FP, Vulkan 1.1
  • Hardware-accelerated H.265 and VP9 decoders
  • HDR Playback Codec support for HDR10+, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision
• Artificial Intelligence:
  • Combination of Qualcomm Kryo CPU and Adreno GPU
  • Qualcomm Hexagon Processor
    • Fused Ai Accelerator
      • Hexagon Tensor Accelerator
      • Hexagon Vector eXtensions
      • Hexagon Scalar Acclerator
    • Support for mix precision (INT8+INT16)
    • Support for all precisions (INT8, INT16, FP16)
• Memory: Up to 16GB LPDDR5 at up to 3200MHz. Supports USB 3.1 and USB-C
• Display:
  • On-Device display support
    • 4K @ 60Hz
    • QHD+ @ 144Hz
  • Maximum External Display Support up to 4K @ 60Hz
    • 10-bit color depth, Rec. 2020 color gamut
    • HDR10 and HDR10+
  • Demura and subpixel rendering for OLED uniformity
• 5G Modem-RF System:
  • Snapdragon X65 Modem-RF System
    • 5GmmWave and sub-6GHz, standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) modes, FDD, TDD
    • Dynamic Spectrum Sharing
    • mmWave: 1000MHz bandwidth, 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO
    • Sub-6GHz: 300MHz bandwidth, 4×4 MIMO
    • Qualcomm 5G PowerSave 2.0
    • Qualcomm Smart Transmit 2.0 technology
    • Qualcomm Wideband Envelope Tracking
    • Qualcomm Ai-Enhanced Signal Boost
    • Global 5G multi-SIM
  • Downlink Up to 10Gbps
  • Multimode support: 5G NR, LTE including CBRS, WCDMA, HSP, TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM/EDGE
• Camera:
  • Qualcomm Spectra Image Signal Processor
    • Triple 18-bit ISPs
    • Up to 3.2Gigapixels per second computer vision ISP (CV-ISP)
    • Up to 36MP triple camera @ 30fps with Zero Shutter Lag
    • Up to 64+36MP dual camera @ 30fps with Zero Shutter Lag
    • Up to 108MP single camera @ 30fps with ZSero Shutter Lag
    • Up to 200MP photo capture
  • Rec. 2020 color gamut photo and video capture
  • Up to 10-bit color depth photo and video capture
  • 8K HDR video capture + 64MP photo capture
  • 10-bit HEIF: HEIC photo capture, HEVC video capture
  • Video capture formats: HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision
  • 8K HDR Video capture at 30fps
  • 4K video capture at 120fps
  • Slow-mo video capture at 720p @ 960fps
  • Bokeh Engine for video capture
  • Video super resolution
  • Multi-frame Noise Reduction (MFNR)
  • Locally Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering
  • Multi-Fram and Triple exposure staggered / digital overlap HDR dual-sensor support
  • AI-based face detection, auto-focus and auto-exposure
• Audio:
  • Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (WCD9385)
  • Ne Qualcomm Aqstic smart speaker amplifier (WSA8835)
  • Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N), Playback: -108dB
  • Qualcomm Audio and Voice Communication Suite
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth:
  • Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 System
    • Wi-Fi Standards: Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi6 (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), 802.11 a/b/g/n
    • Wi-Fi Spectral Bands: 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz
    • Peak speed: 3.6Gbps
    • Channel Bandwidth: 20/40/80/160MHz
    • 8-stream sounding (for 8×8 MU-MIMO)
    • MIMO configuration: 2×2 (2-stream)
    • MU-MIMO (uplink & downlink)
    • 4K QAM
    • OFDMA (Uplink & Downlink)
    • Dual-band simultaneous (2×2 + 2×2)
    • Wi-Fi Security: WPA3-Enterprise, WPA3-Enhanced Open, WPA3 Easy connect, WPA3-Personal
  • Integrated Bluetooth
    • Bluetooth 5.2 LE Audio with Dual Bluetooth Antennas
    • Bluetooth Audio: Snapdragon Sound Technology with support for Qualcomm aptX voice, aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive and LE audio
• Location:
  • GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC capable
  • Dual Frequency GNSS (L1/L5)
  • Sensor-Assisted Positiong
    • Urban pedestrian navigation with sidewalk accuracy
    • Global freeway lane-level vehicle navigation
• Charging: Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 technology
• Security:
  • Platform Security Foundations, Trusted Execution Environment and services, Secure Processing Unit (SPU)
  • Trust Management Engine
  • Qualcomm Wireless edge services (WES) and premium security features
  • Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor and Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max (fingerprint sensor)
  • Qualcomm Type-1 Hypervisor

The Qulacomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will be adopted by global OEMs and brands including Black Shark, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, Realme, Redmi, SHARP, Sony Corporation, vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE, with commercial devices expected by the end of 2021.

Some of the smartphones that are expected to launch with Snapdragon8 Gen1 are Xiaomi 12 Series, Realme GT2 Pro, Motorola Edge 30X / Edge 30 Ultra, Nubia Red Magic Series and ZTE Axon Flagship models. Samsung is also expected to use this new SoC in Galaxy S22 series (in some markets).