Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 (theverge.com) 6
An anonymous reader shares a report: Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 set the stage for the biggest Android smartphones of 2022, including Samsung's flagship Galaxy -- but it's about to be surpassed by a better "Plus" version that'll no doubt appear in buy-it-for-the-bragging-rights gaming phones and luxury handsets. It's called the Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1, which just rolls off the tongue, and Qualcomm says it'll offer 10 percent faster CPU performance, 10 percent faster GPU clocks, and -- get this -- use 15 percent less power for "nearly 1 hour" of extra gameplay or, say, 50 minutes of social media browsing. Technically, Qualcomm says it's achieved "up to 30 percent" better power efficiency from both the CPU and GPU, and 20 percent better AI performance per watt, but that doesn't necessarily all transfer into more battery life -- some of it's about performance, too.
Qualcomm is particularly touting better sustained performance from the new chip too -- theoretically maintaining its clockspeed for longer as it heats up while gaming or tapping into 5G. Of course, that all depends on how phone manufacturers decide to cool the chip. The company's not breaking down where the extra performance and efficiencies are coming from, but you can see some of the chip's other features in the slide above, even though many of them (like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 10Gbps of theoretical 5G, and 8K HDR video capture) haven't changed from the original Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Qualcomm says it'll live alongside that older chip, so you can probably expect a price premium.
Qualcomm is particularly touting better sustained performance from the new chip too -- theoretically maintaining its clockspeed for longer as it heats up while gaming or tapping into 5G. Of course, that all depends on how phone manufacturers decide to cool the chip. The company's not breaking down where the extra performance and efficiencies are coming from, but you can see some of the chip's other features in the slide above, even though many of them (like Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 10Gbps of theoretical 5G, and 8K HDR video capture) haven't changed from the original Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Qualcomm says it'll live alongside that older chip, so you can probably expect a price premium.
Neat (Score:5, Interesting)
Phone hit a peak of needed performance years ago. Now I want a battery that last longer than 2 days.
Re: (Score:3)
A whole bunch of power and nothing to use it on
Well Qualcomm hasn't made it any kind of secret [gizchina.com] that it's aiming for Apple's M1 performance for desktop applications. SoCs in desktop applications are starting to appeal to computer makers. Even the traditional x86 architecture is moving to the chiplet design [intel.com], to allow a traditional x86 core with all kinds of SoCs and specialized ASICs.
I would not be surprised if the 8+ is taking some of the 8cx design here that they're specifically aiming for future Chromebooks, SoC chiplets, and ARM based desktops, for
Re: (Score:2)
The GP probably didn't mention battery life because they thought they needed a bigger battery. They probably mentioned it because they wanted less power consumption from their CPU, so that they could have more runtime.
Though this is essentially misguided because more cores means tasks finish faster, so they use less battery life. Unused cores use little to no power.
Re: (Score:2)
One obstacle for Qualcomm has been the software with both the OS and the applications themselves. Qualcomm has been working with Microsoft on custom ARM chips since the SQL1 in 2019. Before then Microsoft released Windows on ARM platform beginning with Windows RT. Windows on the ARM platform has always been lacking.
It is a classic chicken and egg problem where developers do not want to start developing Windows ARM specific apps until there is a large user base but users do not want to buy a Windows ARM mac
Re: (Score:2)
I think it is more likely that these are just highly binned 8 Gen 1 chips, which would explain their limited availability. Having a completely new chip for just a few devices does not make sense, especially from someone like Qualcomm.
They had the entire Android smartwatch market, and did not make a new, better chip for it for six years (2014-2020). Their 2020 effort is still current, and still sub-par. They killed Google's WearOS in the process, and what we have left now is just Samsung's Tizen with the Wea
Re: (Score:2)
So get a phone with a big battery. I have a Moto G Power (2020) which advertises 3 days on a charge, and it goes quite a bit longer than that with light use. During lonely pandemic times I left it unplugged for a week just to see what would happen, and it still had 50% remaining.
It's a big chunky phone. Most people want thin and light - which means as little battery as possible - but if you want a big one, they exist.