At the Snapdragon Technology Summit two days ago, Qualcomm officially launched the new generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 platform. This new processor comes with a CPU/GPU architecture upgrade and its performance runs into millions on AnTuTu. However, the company took a different path from its regular naming scheme. The predecessor of this chip is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC. However, this new chip uses the name, Snapdragon 8 Gen1.
The previous numbers appear to be straightforward, simple, and easy to remember. These chips can be easily distinguished by numbers. For example, the Snapdragon 8 is better than the Snapdragon 7 series, and the Snapdragon 888 is better than the Snapdragon 870, and so on. However, why did Qualcomm change the name of its flagship processor?.
Don McGuire, senior vice president, and chief marketing officer of Qualcomm, explained the name change. According to him, the number naming is no longer used purely because there are not enough numbers. Last year, it was Snapdragon 888. If you continue to use numbers, only Snapdragon 899 will be available.
Don McGuire explained that in the Chinese market, Qualcomm did not add the company name at the beginning, but directly promoted the Snapdragon brand. The current name change is the first time it has been used globally.
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According to Qualcomm’s research, many people know Snapdragon but don’t know the word Qualcomm. Therefore, the company’s name is actually negatively affected by the combination of Qualcomm + Snapdragon as the brand. Thus, it will remove the Qualcomm name and will only promote the Snapdragon brand will in the future.
Snapdragon 8 Gen1 technical specs
The CPU of this chip comes with a three-cluster design (1+3+4) and the main core is an ARM Cortex-X2 core with a 3.0 GHz clock speed. There are also three “supporting” performance cores based on the newer ARM Cortex-A710 standard. Those will run at 2.5 GHz. Finally, we have four efficiency cores that will also sport the new ARM Cortex-A510 standard running at 1.8 GHz. Overall, the new CPU will reduce power consumption by up to 30 percent. That certainly is a significant upgrade.
Furthermore, this new processor comes with an Adreno 730 GPU with a 30% performance boost and up to 25 power-saving thanks to its new architecture. Qualcomm developed three Elite Gaming features, one of which will allow developers to strike a balance between performance and power efficiency.
Furthermore, the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 brings an integrated X65 5G modem. It offers support for both sub-6 and mmWave operations. It can deliver theoretical peak speeds of 10 Gbps. For the first time, it also supports carrier aggregation for the uplink. Local connectivity enjoys Wi-Fi 6 and 6E support, plus improvements to Bluetooth.
