Qualcomm unveils flagship smartphone processor

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Qualcomm unveils flagship smartphone processor

Qualcomm has announced a new flagship smartphone processor 'Snapdragon 8 Gen 1' at its annual Snapdragon Tech Summit. Qualcomm has promised improvements in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 such as better performance, camera technology, AI capabilities, security and 5 G speed.

Qualcomm 8 Gen 1 processors will be adopted by global OEMs and brands such as Sony Corporation, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Xiaomi and Redmi with commercial devices expected by the end of 2021.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, successor to last year's Snapdragon 888, is Qualcomm's first chipset to follow a new naming scheme, dropping the triple-digit numbering system to distinguish between new and generation-based chipsets. Specifications: Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is the first smartphone chip to use the latest Armv 9 architecture from Arm. It has an eight-core Kryo CPU with a single prime core at 3.0 GHz, three performance cores at 2.5 GHz and four efficiency cores at 1.8 GHz. The new chip is manufactured by a 4 nm process, up from Qualcomm 888's 5 nm process.

Connectivity: The new processors will be equipped with the company's 4th gen Snapdragon X 65 5 G Modem-RF System 'Snapdragon 8', which it claims to be the world's first 5 G modem-RF solution to reach up to 10 Gigabit download speeds.

Camera: The company claims that its 'Sight Technology', used in Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, allows the device to capture more than 4000 x more camera data than its predecessor for better dynamic range, color, and sharpness. This is the first 8 K HDR video capture in a mobile platform and it is capable of HDR 10 format.

The camera can run Face unlocking and locking for heightened privacy and has a feature that allows it to run always on face unlocking and locking.

Artificial Intelligence: The new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 features Qualcomm's latest Hexagon processor, its seventh-generation AI engine, which it claims to be four times faster than Snapdragon 8 and up to 1.7 times more power-efficient.

Qualcomm has also shown off several use cases, with boosted AI performance, such as a new camera function, a Leica Leitz Look mode that mimics Leica lens effects, and improved antenna performance. In addition to this, Qualcomm has added AI-powered visual optimisation to offer a DLSS-style effect for improving mobile games.