Android’s Next Flagship Processor is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

Qualcomm has announced its second-generation flagship cellular chip. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can be obtainable in varied flagship Android units as quickly as the top of 2022.

Last yr, Qualcomm introduced a brand new naming scheme to make it simpler to tell apart between its highest-performing chip and its mid-to-budget tiers. The Snapdragon 8 sequence is the one with the beefiest spec sheet. This yr, it’s showcasing an improved Hexagon processor with a bigger tensor accelerator for what Qualcomm says is as much as 4.35 occasions elevated AI efficiency. This chip is the primary to assist INT4, which is Nvidia’s precision AI format. On the gaming entrance, the 8 Gen 2 boasts an upgraded Adreno GPU with supposedly 25% quicker gaming efficiency and 40% extra energy effectivity, as facilitated by the Kryo CPU.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 options enhanced AI capabilities. It guarantees quicker processing for a number of languages and customized wake phrase assist. The 8 Gen 2 options built-in assist for spatial audio and dynamic head monitoring, which can be important going into the brand new yr as sound-improving wi-fi buds have change into the defacto companion gadget for smartphones. And since router companies are beginning to supply Wi-Fi 7-enabled {hardware}, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 already helps the wi-fi commonplace. (Mediatek additionally just lately announced Wi-Fi 7 assist on its newest cellular processor, so it’s clearly within the zeitgeist.)

Qualcomm is attempting its hand at providing native-like AI processing akin to Google’s Tensor. It’s most obvious with its guarantees for improved photo-taking with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Sight platform inaugurates the corporate’s first Cognitive ISP. Snapdragon Sight helps the digital camera acknowledge variations in facial options, hair, garments, and even the sky to snap a fantastic photograph. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 additionally helps new picture sensors coming to market, together with the Samsung ISOCELL HP3, a 200-MP sensor tuned to this explicit chip, and sensors supporting Sony’s new HDR format.

You can anticipate the brand new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to crop up in future Motorola and OnePlus units. The jury remains to be out on whether or not Samsung will follow Qualcomm for its Galaxy S23 smartphones subsequent yr—Samsung has its chip-making pipeline with the Exynos processor, although it’s rarely utilized in its U.S. releases. Xiaomi, Oppo, and different manufacturers with gross sales abroad will seemingly be the primary producers to hold the chip by the top of the yr. I can’t wait to check the brand new telephones towards our present benchmarks archive. And because the Google Tensor doesn’t fairly check the identical manner Qualcomm’s silicon does in artificial benchmark assessments, we’ll begin testing issues like language translation and picture processing to see how the brand new flagship chips are faring.