Qualcomm launches new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform

Brink · Nov 16, 2022

Today at Snapdragon Summit 2022 in Maui we launched our latest and greatest best-in-class mobile platform to date — the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 — and we’re not going to lie, it’s quite the AI marvel.

This is the new standard of innovation with our cutting-edge technologies, industry-first features, and all things bigger and better. The debut of these breakthrough Snapdragon innovations will soon fuel supreme experiences in connected devices beyond your smartphone — we’re talking everything from your smart home to your gaming devices, fitness gear, connected car, and more. Here are the top eight ways this exciting new platform will power your next-gen extraordinary experiences.

1. AI is integrated system-wide
Artificial intelligence (AI) runs within our next-gen Qualcomm AI Engine, and now the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 implements groundbreaking AI across major technology blocks. This includes the first Cognitive Image Signal Processor (Cognitive ISP), dual AI processors in the Qualcomm Sensing Hub, the world's first and only 5G AI processor in a modem-RF system, plus our fastest, most advanced Qualcomm Hexagon processor ever.

All this adds up to impressive gains in efficiency and performance. Our new platform is up to 4.35x1 faster than its predecessor in models like natural language processing (NLP). Transformer networks power NLP, and our support for transformer networks is upgraded to enable better performance in increasingly new ways. This is thanks to the industry’s only Micro Tile Inferencing technique so we can power features like real-time multi-language translation. In other words, you can speak into a language translator and have it translated into multiple languages running these complex networks.

It’s also the first Snapdragon mobile platform to support INT4 — a revolutionary AI precision format — with 60 percent better performance per watt and 90 percent better overall performance over its predecessor. This innovative technique shrinks the models and allows complex neural networks to run more efficiently, which means queries can be answered much faster for voice assistants or images can be classified in bulk for camera applications.

(Left) Original photo, (Right) Brilliant shades and colors shine through when using Real-time semantic segmentation to capture photos.

2. Real-time semantic segmentation for AI-enhanced photos
With the new AI-powered Cognitive ISP you can now enhance photos and videos in real time with semantic segmentation. This means each aspect within your photo or video frame is recognizable — faces, hair, clothes, backgrounds — and they’re optimized individually so every detail is fine-tuned — before you’re ready to hit that shutter button.

Snapdragon Sight now boasts a Cognitive ISP capable of running AI models so your camera can see the world in layers and adjust in real time.

It even enhances nature, food, text, and more. We rolled this into Snapdragon Sight so you can share expert-level photos with friends, family, and the world.

Ray tracing makes gaming life-like, without draining your battery.

3. Snapdragon is the industry standard for real-time hardware-accelerated ray tracing
Snapdragon Elite Gaming delivers the best mobile gaming experiences on Snapdragon 8, and with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Snapdragon Elite Gaming now includes a sensational new feature that’ll bring games to life: real-time hardware accelerated ray tracing. Games can now harness life-like reflections, shadows, and illuminations in real time, while delivering exceptional battery life and power efficiency.

This is immersive gaming like never before. And with up to 45% better power efficiency and up to 25% better performance from the Qualcomm Adreno GPU, you’re sure to get lost in the adventure.

Your real and virtual worlds collide with avatars as unique as thumbprints, thanks to a fully supported Unreal Engine 5 MetaHuman framework in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

4. Unreal Engine 5 with MetaHuman Framework
What’s gaming without bold, lifelike characters? The latest Unreal Engine 5 fully supports the MetaHuman framework that unlocks a whole new level of realism. Now you’ll interact with photo-realistic, high-fidelity characters as unique as you are. Hair, eyes, makeup, body type, clothing, and other nuances are 100 percent customizable, creating shockingly accurate avatars. And their authentic expressions enmesh your real and virtual worlds.

5. Our brand-new CPU micro architecture: 1-4-3
The central processing unit (CPU) is where essential processing and operations happen, including data flow management and task execution. It makes sure all your on-device activities run smoothly so you can multitask endlessly without hesitation.

The newest Snapdragon 8 incorporates the latest Qualcomm Kryo CPU, featuring unique architectures: one prime core, four performance cores, and three efficiency cores. Compared to Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, we converted one of the efficiency cores to a higher-clocking performance core to bolster performance. Our performance cores also feature two distinct architectures that benefit a host of applications that rely on speed, while maintaining optimum power efficiency.

Breakthrough 5G performance improves location accuracy.

6. Breakthrough 5G performance
With these brand-new experiences, we want to make sure you can use them to their fullest potential — no matter where you go — which is why we have included the ultimate Snapdragon Connect experiences. This includes the Snapdragon X70 — the world’s first and only 5G modem-RF system with an integrated AI processor. At the heart of this system is the Qualcomm 5G AI Suite, which delivers AI optimizations for sub-6 GHz and mmWave 5G links for improved speeds, coverage, latency, mobility, power efficiency and more. So, what does this mean in the real world?

For pedestrian use cases where you’re either walking or sitting somewhere, you’ll get improvement in 5G downlink data rates for better experiences across all your apps. With mobility and vehicular use cases, you’ll get game-changing performance when streaming content or games when on the go. In dense urban areas, where radio signals can bounce off buildings and arrive at a device from different paths and at different times, a phenomenon known as multipath, the use of AI improved downlink performance significantly so you’ll no longer fear using your smartphone in Manhattan or Tokyo. And location performance improved as well, which translates to the difference between your Uber driver stopping in front of you, or you chasing them half-way down the block.

Qualcomm 5G AI Suite is just one more example of how we push the boundaries of 5G performance and power efficiency to enable extraordinary experiences.

7. Spatial audio with head tracking
With Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, we’ve added spatial audio with dynamic head-tracking2 for complete surround-sound immersion. Immersive sound moves with your head motions, tracked by this incredible Snapdragon Sound technology. Dynamic Spatial Audio is optimized between the smartphone and earbud to ensure low motion-to-sound latency for more natural and immersive spatial audio experiences. Whether dancing to your favorite tunes, streaming action-packed movies, or gaming in immersive worlds, Snapdragon Sound delivers captivating audio that's all around you.

8. Your world is more secure
Security is of the utmost importance, which is why you’re safeguarded by Snapdragon Secure on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Together with trinamiX, we’ve raised the bar with facial recognition by adding liveness detection designed to block spoof attempts from 2D photos and even 3D replica face models. This premium level of protection means you’ll feel even more confident with your Snapdragon-empowered device.

While there are countless other amazing features powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform, we cherry-picked our top eight that will make your gameplay, professional-quality photos, connectivity, and sound experiences stand out next year. And as usual, we’re not stopping there: these powerful technologies will soon make their way across our portfolio to bring you premium multi-device experiences, thanks to the power of Snapdragon.

We can’t wait to see the myriad of new flagship devices that will emerge from our partners, fueled by premium mobile experiences enabled by this platform — and most of all, how Snapdragon will unleash creativity, productivity, and fun in your world.