Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 announced with four performance cores, Wi-Fi 7 and hardware level raytracing support ^↺

Qualcomm has officially launched the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (SM8550-AB) mobile AP for high-end smartphones. It aims to right the wrongs of its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which was hamstrung by Samsung's inferior 4LPX node. This time, it uses an objectively better TSMC N4P node, the same process used by Apple's A16 Bionic. Qualcomm says the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered device will be launched by the end of 2022.

As foretold by multiple Geekbench listings, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will feature one Arm Cortex-X3 core clocked at 3.2 GHz, four Cortex-A715 cores at 2.8 GHz and three Cortex-A510 cores at 2.0 GHz. The extra performance core should give it an edge over the competition, at least in multi-threaded workloads, while being over 40% more power-efficient.

Qualcomm claims the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2's GPU is 25% faster than its predecessor and supports Unreal Engine 5 Metahumans Framework for upcoming titles. That, combined with real-time raytracing and HDR10 should allow it to make short work of any next-gen game devs can throw at it. Lastly, the SoC can also play 8K 60 FPS HDR video thanks to AV1 codec support.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 includes a new "cognitive 18-bit triple Spectra ISP". It can capture 200 MP images and supports a variety of camera configurations. Video capture options include 8K 30 FPS, 4K 120 FPS, 720p 960 FPS, and more. Other features include support for 10-bit colour, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, Multi-frame noise reduction, and more.

Like the Dimensity 9200 launched earlier this week, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is a Wi-Fi 7-ready SoC and supports 802.11be, 802.11ax, 802.11ac, and 802.11a/b/g/n connectivity standards with a maximum speed of 5.8 Gbps, made possible by Qualcomm's new FastConnect 7800 chip. Bluetooth 5.3 is supported, along with Snapdragon Sound, aptX, aptX Lossless (up to 48kHz lossless music), LE audio and a 48 ms low-latency mode for gamers.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can power one 4K 60 Hz or a 1440p 144 Hz smartphone display and a 4K 60 Hz external monitor. Its improved Hexagon AI processing unit is up to 4.3 times faster than its predecessor. Sub-6-GHz and mmWave 5G networks are supported thanks to its X70 5G modem, which allows users to run two 5G-enabled sims simultaneously. OEMs can configure Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 smartphones with up to 16 GB of 4,200 MT/s memory and UFS 4.0 storage.