Introduction

The chipsets powering smartphones are getting smarter, and the ones made by Qualcomm are particularly known for that. The next version of its flagship mobile chipset by Qualcomm is called Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 gives us a preview of what Android phones could be capable of in 2023. The chipset offers improvements to AI performance, image processing for better camera shots, and connectivity. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is said to be purpose built for AI. That means that the Qualcomm AI Engine is powered by an upgraded Hexagon processor. This supports features like multi-language translation, customised wake words and camera capabilities that tap into artificial intelligence.

TSMC Solving the heating issue in new Snapdragon 8 Gen2

In recent years, the upgrades by Snapdragon have been coupled with the problem of power consumption and heating. As compared to previous versions, the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 can improve CPU performance by 10%, energy efficiency by 15%, and GPU performance by 20%. The AI performance will also go up by 10% and the ISP performance has also improved a lot. The all new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will completely solve the problem of heating. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will use TSMC’s 4nm which will greatly improve the performance and energy efficiency. This new Snapdragon will deliver the highest performance at low heating temperatures.

New structure of the New Processor

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is based on the ARMv9 architecture and uses TSMC’s 4nm process. Other than that, the chip uses a 1+4+3 instead of the 1+3+4 configuration. Featuring a Cortex-X3 core clocked at 3.2GHz, the latest Snapdragon chipset comes with four performance cores. The extra core is expected to help improve performance in applications like gaming and editing. As per Qualcomm, the latest processor will provide 35 per cent improvement over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 gen 2 supports UFS 4 & LPDDR5X Ram

Qualcomm is able to deliver meaningful gains year over year. The new Cortex X3-based Kyro Prime core runs at 3.2GHz with 4 performance cores clocked at 2.8GHz. The GPU performance has been improved to give a 25% better performance and 45% better power efficiency. It supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing and up to LPDDR5X RAM and UFS 4.0 storage format. The reference hardware was running a 64-bit version of Android 13 with OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.3 along with an Adreno 740 GPU.

Now Raytracing is making games more interactive

For gamers, the biggest upgrade seen in Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is hardware ray tracing. The Adreno GPU and the Kryo CPU will be able to support real-time hardware-accelerated ray tracing. This could push graphics on smartphone games to newer heights. The new Snapdragon, however, launches with the support of game makers and smartphone OEMs. Qualcomm expects its OEM customers to launch with ray-tracing titles as well. Qualcomm will also offer the first mobile-optimised support for the Unreal Engine 5 Metahumans framework, allowing players to have photorealistic human characters in games.

New Snapdragon with Improvement in camera ISP

If you are a shutterbug, you will see image and video quality improvement. This is because the image signal processor (ISP) can now loop-in AI functions without OS intervention. The chip is capable of enhancing photos and videos automatically and in real-time with the help of semantic segmentation. This is possible because it makes use of an AI neural network to make the camera track and improve elements like face, hair, clothes, etc. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is the first Snapdragon model with support for AV1 codec and will be capable of capturing 8K footage at 60fps.

Smartphones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

At its launch event Qualcomm announced a total of 17 phone manufacturers that will be using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. These include multiple phone makers who've committed to releasing Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 devices, including Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Redmi, Sony, Xiaomi, Vivo and ZTE. The first to use the chip may be Vivo X90 series. Samsung is missing out from the list of Android phones featuring Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. We will have to wait for Samsung’s official announcement, if it will be using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or Exynos.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 vs A16 Bionic Chip - The much awaited battle

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is built on a 4-nanometer process, putting it in the same league as another 4nm chipset, the A16 Bionic. The A16 Bionic is known to deliver the best performance. Qualcomm has managed to close the gap against Apple in multi-threaded tasks. Besides the single-core CPU performance, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has taken the lead in all other categories. Other than that, in the AI and wireless connectivity department, Qualcomm already has a significant lead. Qualcomm has done a tremendous job at improving its mobile SoC with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

Conclusion

Qualcomm’s new premium-smartphone processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is breaking the news with its new capabilities. It delivers substantial CPU, GPU, and AI speedups along with other specifications. Featuring new cores and faster clocks, it is estimated that the CPU performance should be 27% greater than the 8 Gen 1’s. This new chipset is all ready to revolutionise the landscape of flagship smartphones in 2023. The chip is meant for the flagship Android phones and promises to bring loads of performance and efficiency upgrades over its previous versions.