Alongside the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, Qualcomm has also unveiled a revised version of its flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset. The new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (SM8475) promises just a bit more performance, but significantly lower power consumption. While the original 8 Gen 1 was never slow, the heat build-up and power consumption offered some room for improvement.
10% more performance, 30% less power consumption
Qualcomm advertises the new processor with 10% more CPU power and 30% less power consumption. The Cortex-X2 prime core now runs at 3.2 GHz in the new model, finally reaching the top clock of the Snapdragon 870. The flagship processor from early 2021 still held the record for a Qualcomm CPU, as the X2 in the original 8 Gen 1 only reached 3.0 GHz. The top processor in between, the Snapdragon 888, only ran at a maximum of 2.84 GHz. In addition, Qualcomm also ramped up the other two CPU clusters. Besides the Prime Core with 3.2 GHz, the Gold Cores work at 2.75 GHz and the Silver Cores at 2.0 GHz. For comparison, the clock speeds of the 8 Gen 1 were 3.0 GHz, 2.5 GHz and 1.8 GHz.
The GPU also runs at a 10% higher frequency, while power consumption has dropped by 30%. The power-to-watt ratio of the AI engine increased by 20%. The modems integrated in the chip have also become more efficient. The overall power efficiency at the SoC level was be improved by 15%. In numbers, the new processor streams video 1 hour and 30 minutes longer and sustains voice calls for 5 hours and 30 minutes longer.
Production: TSMC instead of Samsung
One reason for the improvements is a new supplier. The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is still manufactured in 4 Nm, but the production has been shifted from Samsung to TSMC. The rest of the hardware is the same with up to 16GB LPDDR5 RAM (3200MHz) and UFS 3.1 storage. QHD+ resolution displays up to 144Hz or 4K at 60Hz are supported, complete with 10-bit rendering (Rec. 2020) and HDR10+ support.
The Snapdragon X65 modem achieves theoretical top speeds of 10 Gbps, while the FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi 6/6E module supports up to 3.6 GHz. Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity includes aptX Lossless and Bluetooth LE Audio, again with longer playback times thanks to improved efficiency.
The chipset houses the same 18-bit Spectra image processor that supports up to 200-megapixel camera sensors and 8K video recording at 30 fps (4K at 120 fps). Image processing features such as multi-frame noise reduction and staggered / DoL HDR are on board, as is a dedicated bokeh engine and support for HLG, HDR10+ and Dolby Vision formats.
According to Qualcomm, the first manufacturers will introduce Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 devices in the third quarter. There is a long list of companies that will install the new chipset. These include Asus, Black Shark, Honor, iQOO, Lenovo, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Red Magic, Redmi, Vivo, Xiaomi and ZTE.
