While recent reports suggested that the successor to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 will be delayed to the second half of 2022, Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (not 8 Gen 1+) chipset at its launch event in China. The plus variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has been unveiled earlier than previous-gen plus chipsets, which usually arrive in late-June or early-July. So let’s take a look at what the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 has to offer.
The Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 mobile platform is Qualcomm’s attempt to fix the shortcomings of the standard 8 Gen 1, offering improved power efficiency while delivering a performance boost. This has been made possible by a simple change. The 8+ Gen 1 is developed on TSMC’s 4nm process node as opposed to Samsung’s foundry, which was used for the standard 8 Gen 1. That means we expect most of the user complaints about throttling and thermal issues to be eliminated with this chipset.
Finally, having said that, the AI engine on the 8+ Gen1 offers 20% better performance per watt when you compare it to the SD 8 Gen1. That means this upgraded chipset will offer you better battery life while using AI and ML-based features. “The company’s newest flagship platform, Snapdragon 8+ (Gen 1), is a premium-tier powerhouse delivering power and performance enhancements for the ultimate boost across all on-device experiences,” says the official press release.
