Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with faster, more efficient, with ray tracing and Wi-Fi 7 launched

Qualcomm, one of the leading smartphone chipset makers, has today officially announced its next-generation Snapdragon series flagship processor for high-end smartphones — Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

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As the name itself indicates, the newly announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is a successor to the last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, and it comes with a focus on better and more efficient performance, especially when it comes to AI-related tasks.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with 35% faster CPU, 25% faster GPU launched

CPU

The Kryo CPU on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 includes one prime core based on the ARM Cortex-X3 clocked at 3.2GHz, as well as four performance cores at 2.8GHz and three efficiency cores at 2.0GHz. Compared to last year’s chipset, these are 200MHz to 300MHz faster. The company says the CPU is 35 percent faster than the previous generation and 40 percent more power efficient.

GPU

Its latest Adreno GPU is claimed to offer 25 percent higher performance while being 45 percent more power efficient. It also brings support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing to the Snapdragon platform. There’s support for faster memory technologies, including LP-DDR5X RAM at up to 4,200MHz and new UFS 4.0 storage.

Similar to the SD8 Gen 1, the newly announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is built using a 4nm process. As for the display, the chipset comes with support for QHD+ resolution at up to 144Hz or 4K resolution at 60Hz. It also supports external displays up to 4K resolution at 60Hz with a 10-bit Rec. 2020 color gamut, HDR10+, and Dolby Vision.

ISP

Coming to the camera department, it has a triple 18-bit ISP that supports up to three 36MP cameras simultaneously or up to 200MP for a single-camera configuration. It also supports 108MP camera sensors with zero shutter lag. The company has also improved support for the latest Sony and Samsung sensors as Sony sensors with DOL-HDR and Samsung’s 200MP HP3 sensors are optimized to work with the ISP on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

AI

Qualcomm says it has made improvements throughout the Hexagon processor for up to 4.35x faster Artificial Intelligence (AI) performance and claims that the chip can handle more complex tasks, like translating a language into multiple languages in real time.

Connectivity

It is also the world’s first chip to have support for Wi-Fi 7 technology.

It packs a Qualcomm Snapdragon X70 modem, which was announced earlier this year at the Mobile World Congress. It has its own AI processor for boosting 5G performance and comes with support for dual active 5G SIMs, which means that users can use two different 5G networks simultaneously.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Specifications

• 1 x Kryo Prime CPU (Arm Cortex-X3 based) at up to 3.2GHz, 4 x Kryo Performance CPUs (2 x Arm Cortex-A715 and 2 x Arm Cortex-A710 based) at up to 2.8GHz, 3x Kryo Efficiency CPUs (Arm Cortex-A510 based) at up to 2GHz, ARMv9 architecture
• 4nm Process Technology
• Built-in Qualcomm Snapdragon X70 5G modem-RF system
• 5G speeds of up to 10Gpbs down, 5G mmWave and sub-6 GHz, standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) modes, mmWave: 1000 MHz bandwidth, 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO, Sub-6 GHz: 300 MHz bandwidth, 4×4 MIMO, Qualcomm 5G PowerSave Gen 3, Qualcomm Smart Transmit 3.0 technology, Qualcomm Wideband Envelope Tracking, Qualcomm 5G Ultra-Low Latency Suite. Global 5G multi-SIM, including 5G-5G/4G DualSIM Dual-Active (DSDA)
• Qualcomm Adreno next-gen GPU, Vulkan 1.3 API support, HDR gaming (10-bit color depth, Rec. 2020 color gamut), API Support: OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 FP, Vulkan 1.3, Real-time Hardware-Accelerated Ray Tracing
• Hardware-accelerated H.265 and VP9 decoder, HDR Playback Codec support for HDR10+, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision
• Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec, New Qualcomm Aqstic smart speaker amplifier, Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N), Playback: -108dB, Qualcomm Audio and Voice Communication Suite, Spatial Audio with Head Tracking
• Up to 36 MP triple camera, Up to 64+36 MP dual camera, Up to 108 MP single camera with ZSL, Up to 200MP single camera, Qualcomm Spectra Image Sensor Processor (Cognitive 18-bit triple-ISP)
• Rec. 2020 color gamut photo and video capture, Up to 10-bit color depth photo and video capture, 8K HDR Video Capture + 64 MP Photo Capture
  10-bit HEIF: HEIC photo capture, HEVC video capture, Video Capture Formats: HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, 8K HDR Video Capture @ 30 FPS, 4K Video Capture @ 120 FPS, Slow-mo video capture at 720p @ 960 FPS, Bokeh Engine 2 for Video Capture, Pro Sight Video Capture , Video super resolution, Multi-frame Noise Reduction (MFNR), Locally Motion Compensated Temporal Filtering, Multi-Frame and triple exposure staggered/digital, overlap HDR dual sensor support, AI-based face detection, auto-focus, and auto-exposure
• On-Device Display Support: 4K at 60 Hz / QHD+ at 144 Hz, Maximum External Display Support: up to 4K @ 60 Hz, 10-bit color depth, Rec. 2020 color gamut, HDR10 and HDR10+, Demura and subpixel rendering for OLED Uniformity
• Qualcomm Hexagon Processor, Fused AI Accelerator, Hexagon Tensor Accelerator, Hexagon Vector eXtensions, Hexagon Scalar Accelerator, Support for mix precision (INT8+INT16), Support for all precisions (INT4, INT8, INT16, FP16), Micro Tile Inferencing
• Support for LP-DDR5x memory up to 4200 MHz
• Wi-Fi 7 Peak speed: 5.8 Gbps, Wi-Fi 6E, 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) Multi-gigabit, Integrated 802.11ac 2×2 (2-stream) MU-MIMO, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6GHz, Bluetooth 5.3, LE Audio, Dual Bluetooth antennas
• Bluetooth audio: Snapdragon Sound Technology with support for Qualcomm aptX Voice, aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive, and LE audio, NFC
• GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC capable, Dual Frequency GNSS (L1/L5), Sensor-Assisted Positioning, Urban pedestrian navigation with sidewalk accuracy, Global freeway lane-level vehicle navigation
•  USB 4.0, USB-C
•  Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 technology

Availability

Qualcomm revealed a list of partners for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor, which includes Motorola, OPPO, and ASUS ROG, among others. However, Samsung is missing from the list, but we are very sure the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 series flagship smartphones will come powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. The company says that smartphones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will start getting launched by the end of this year.