Today Qualcomm held the Snapdragon Summit 2022 in Hawaii, where it officially announced its new flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which has been upgraded in all aspects compared to the first generation.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 model number SM8550-AB is manufactured using a 4nm process, and here are more details about the chip.
CPU and GPU
While Qualcomm is currently focused on improving energy efficiency, the new chip still delivers significant speed improvements, with the new processor delivering up to a 35 percent CPU performance boost and a 40 percent energy efficiency improvement over Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 clock speeds are the same as 8+ Gen 1, but the core composition is different. The new processor features a new 1+2+2+3 architecture with one mega-core Kryo Prime core (based on Cortex-X3) running at 3.2 GHz for high single-threaded performance. There are also four performance cores running at 2.8GHz to better handle multi-threaded workloads. Finally, there are three efficiency cores at 2.0GHz.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 brings support for new, faster memory technologies. Memory now supports LP-DDR5X at up to 4,200MHz (up from 3,200MHz in LP-DDR5) and storage support for the new UFS 4.0.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 features an Adreno GPU with a 25% performance boost and 45% power efficiency improvement, and also brings support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the Snapdragon platform. In addition, this GPU is the first GPU to support Vulkan 1.3 (and OpenGL ES 3.2).
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 supports QHD+ resolution displays up to 144Hz refresh rate, or 4K displays at 60Hz, and also supports external displays up to 4K, 60Hz (with 10-bit Rec.2020 color gamut, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision capabilities). AV1 video decoding is also supported, with support for up to 8K, 60fps streaming (with HDR).
Camera
Qualcomm claims that Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has been optimised for Digital Overla HDR (DOL-HDR)-enabled Sony sensors and Samsung’s 200-megapixel HP3 sensor to work with Snapdragon ISPs. Like its predecessor, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 features an 18-bit triple ISP that can handle data from three 36MP cameras (30fps) simultaneously, with pixel support for individual cameras up to 200MP, as well as 108MP sensors with zero shutter lag.
For video, the chipset can capture 8K HDR footage at 30fps (and simultaneous 64MP photos), 4K footage at 120fps, and also supports slow motion video (720p at 960fps). Multiple HDR formats are supported, including HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision.
Networking
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is upgraded to the new Snapdragon X70 modem, which supports both millimeter wave and sub 6GHz 5G networks. It has peak downlink speeds of 10Gbps and peak uplink speeds of 3.5Gbps (similar to its predecessor).
The modem supports dual SIM, dual activation (DSDA) operation, where two 5G SIMs (or 5G+4G) can be activated simultaneously.
Thanks to the new FastConnect 7800 system, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 supports the Wi-Fi 7 standard (802.11be) with a maximum speed of 5.8Gbps (up from 3.6Gbps previously). In addition to speed, the new standard also reduces latency.
As before, the FastConnect system supports Bluetooth 5.3, which delivers 48kHz lossless music streaming and the lowest 48ms latency ever with the latest Snapdragon audio system. For wired connectivity, the chip supports USB 3.1 and Quick Charge 5.
AI
The new Hexagon processor introduces support for the new INT4 format, a first for Qualcomm’s mobile chips, with a 60 percent performance increase per watt over previous models.
Hexagon is also faster overall, and AI performance has been improved by 4.35x to improve photo quality by recognizing which parts of an image are faces, hair, clothes, backgrounds and more.
Coming soon
Qualcomm said Asus ROG, Glory, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, One Plus, OPPO, Red Magic, Sharp, Sony, Vivo, Xiaomi, Star Era / Meizu and ZTE (no mention of Samsung) will launch phones equipped with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, the first batch of phones based on the processor will be available before the end of this year, but Qualcomm did not say which is the first, but OPPO side has said that it will be the first in the next generation of Find X flagship products equipped with the new second-generation Snapdragon 8 flagship mobile platform.
