Qualcomm's new Snapdragon chip promises more power, less battery drain
Qualcomm's chips are powering some of the most powerful Android phones around, and now the company has a new flagship chip that is both faster and more energy efficient than its predecessor.
The awkwardly named Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (seriously, what's wrong with just a simple number?) is up to 10% faster than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, while drawing 30% less power. These improvements should be visible both in mobile gaming and regular use, thanks to the chip's new Adreno GPU and the new Kryo CPU.
For an idea of what you can expect performance-wise, some of the phones touting Snapdragon's last chip include the OnePlus 10 Pro and the Xiaomi 12 Pro.
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The new chip will enable phones to take 8K HDR video, with support for the HDR10+ format. AI tasks are also getting a boost thanks to Qualcomm's 7th Gen AI engine, which the company says delivers up to 20% better performance per watt than its predecessor.
All in all, we can expect 5.5 hours more talk time, and more than 60 extra minutes of gameplay with this chip, compared to a phone equipped with last year's Snapdragon chip.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 will be available in the third quarter of 2022, and will power phones from Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo, Lenovo, Motorola, Vivo, and ZTE, among other manufacturers.
Qualcomm also launched a new chip for mid-range phones, called the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. It promises 20% faster graphics rendering, the ability to take photos at 200 megapixels and videos in 4K HDR, and up to 30% better AI performance.
We'll see Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 in the second quarter of 2022 in phones from manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Oppo, and Honor.
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
