Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip is officially unveiled • HWzone

With or without a direct connection to the fact that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a disappointment when it comes to battery life – the new incarnation of the flagship product for the mobile market focuses on noting the improvement in efficiency for the various processing units in it, alongside the potential improvement in maximum performance

After the unveiling of the Dimensity 9200 from Mediatek, we knew that Qualcomm would not want to be left behind for too long – and here, about a week after its most significant rival to date, it also presents to the world the chip that should become the dream object of most upgraders and joiners in the Android world in the coming months: Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, with a special array that for the first time divides its eight physical processing cores into four different groups.

The S8G2 is based on the same N4 process from TSMC as the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 (and thus gives the potential for a small technological advantage of the Dimensity 9200 with the updated N4P process), and includes one large senior core based on Cortex-X3 with An operating frequency of up to 3.2GHz (when the small letters reveal to us that it is actually 3.1872GHz which Qualcomm chooses to round up), another pair of cores based on the updated Cortex-A715 architecture with a frequency of up to 2.8GHz, another pair of powerful cores based on the Cortex architecture -A710 which we saw in its debut in S8G1, with a frequency of up to 2.8GHz, and for dessert also 3 small and economical cores based on a refreshed Cortex-A510R1 architecture that will operate at a frequency of up to 2GHz.

On the graphics processing front, there is an Adreno core based on a new architecture and includes for the first time dedicated hardware units for accelerating ray tracing calculations, similar to the current graphics cards of AMD and NVIDIA and like the new Immortalis graphics core in the Dimensity 9200, plus support for the Vulkan 1.3 standard that should bring with it’s own performance improvements for supporting titles. In the overall calculation, Qualcomm promises us an improvement of up to 35 percent in the maximum performance of the general processing cores and an improvement of up to 25 percent in the maximum performance of the graphics core, compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 from a year ago – or an improvement of up to 40 percent in the performance efficiency of the CPU And an improvement of up to 45 in the efficiency of the GPU compared to the previous incarnation, when it is probably a comparison for some identical performance level (not necessarily the one where the capabilities are the highest for both chips) where the improved architectures of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 get a chance to be at their best.

The top chip includes an LPDDR5X controller with four 16-bit channels and support for base speeds of 4,200MT/s for its dynamic memories, on the way to an effective bandwidth of approximately 67GBps, a display controller with support for resolutions up to 4K at a refresh rate of 60 Hz or QHD/WQHD resolutions With a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz, an image processing engine that supports sensors with a resolution of up to 200 megapixels and 720p video recording at a rate of up to 960 frames per second, dedicated fast charging technology of the Quick Charge 5 type and an engine for accelerating artificial intelligence calculations and computational learning that claims to provide an improvement of up to more than 4 times compared to the previous generation, or 60 percent better efficiency in terms of performance for every watt of power invested in the process.

We are not yet convinced that there is any real value in adding the subtle realism of ray-tracing technologies on a tiny 6-inch or even 10-inch screen – but it seems that the chip developers like the concept, which allows them to create a more noticeable difference between flagship products and budget products using In one of the most popular buzz terms around in recent years

The Snapdragon X70 built-in cellular modem provides support for four-by-four antenna MIMO arrays in the sub-6GHz frequencies and support for 2×2 MIMO arrays in the higher mmWave frequencies on the way to a theoretical combined download rate of 10Gbps, along with a theoretical upload rate of 3.5 Gbps – and the FastConnect 7800 unit for wireless connectivity provides built-in support for Bluetooth 5.3, Bluetooth LE Audio and especially the next-generation Wi-Fi 7 (or 802.11be) standard, with potential declared transfer speeds of up to 5.8Gbps.

Qualcomm promises that the first smartphones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in them will be presented before the year 2022 ends, and has published a slide with the names of no less than 17 different manufacturers that are going to cooperate with it in the near future as evidence of the considerable popularity that it has successfully maintained for many years – when the list is missing At least one big name in particular that according to all evidence will make extensive use of the S8G2 as part of its new generation: Samsung.

Will the emphasis on efficiency alongside an absolute performance boost and the continued collaboration with TSMC in preference to Samsung’s chip manufacturing division help Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 maintain the performance lead and also return to the top of the battery life charts? Feel free to tell us what your impressions are in the comments.