Qualcomm 8cx 7nm Compute Platform for thin, light and fanless always on, always connected Windows 10 PCs announced


Qualcomm has announced Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform, the world’s first 7 nanometer PC platform, and the sucessor of Snapdragon 850 on the third day of the annual Snapdragon Technology Summit. This will offer thin, light and fanless always on, always connected Windows 10 PCs and also has support for Windows 10 enterprise customers for the first time. It has new octa-core Qualcomm Kryo 495 CPU and Qualcomm  Adreno 680 GPU that will be 2X faster and 60% more efficient than Snapdragon 850 and 3.5X faster than Snapdragon 835.

It is the first Snapdragon Compute platform for PCs to support Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology, comes with Qualcomm Aqstic audio technology and Qualcomm aptX HD for high definition Bluetooth wireless audio and supports voice assistants like Cortana and Alexa for consumers using their PCs.  It also comes with second generation USB 3.1 over Type C, third generation PCI-E, and lets you connect two 4K High Dynamic Range (HDR) monitors.  The Qualcomm Snapdragon X24 LTE modem offering download speeds of up to 2 Gbps.

Qualcomm 8cx Compute Platform specifications

  • Octa-Core (4x performance Kryo 495+ 4x effeciency Kryo 495) CPU
  • 7nm Process Technology
  • Integrated X24 LTE modem
  • Cat 20/13 speeds of up to 2 Gbps down, 7x20MHz carrier aggregation, 256-QAM, 4×4 MIMO on five carriers and 316 Mbps up, 3×20 MHz carrier aggregation, 256-QAM, Uplink Data Compression,  Full-Dimension MIMO
    (FD-MIMO), Maximum 20 spatial streams
  • Qualcomm Adreno 680 GPU, API Support DX12
  • 4th Generation Qualcomm AI Engine, Enhanced voice assistant experiences
    for Alexa and Cortana with Qualcomm Aqstic technology,  Qualcomm TrueWireless Technology, Qualcomm Broadcast Audio technology, Qualcomm aptX audio technology, Surround Sound playback
  • Supports all versions Windows 10 (Enterprise, Pro, Home)
  • Improved crypto-security
  • Hexagon 685 DSP, Qualcomm All-Ways Aware technology
  • Up to 16 MP dual camera, Up to 32 MP single camera, Dual 14-bit ISPs, Qualcomm Spectra 390 image signal processor, Up to 4K HDR video capture, Up 4K HDR decode at 120fps, H.265 (HEVC), H.264 (AVC), VP9
  •  2133MHz LPDDR4x memory, 8 Channels, NVME SSD; UFS3.0
  • 802.11ad, 802.11ac Wave 2, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 60 GHz, 2×2 (2-stream), MU-MIMO, Multi-gigabit Wi-Fi, Dual-band simultaneous (DBS),  Integrated baseband
  • Assisted GPS, OTDOA (LTE-based positioning), GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS
  • Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, USB 3.1
  • Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology

The Snapdragon 8cx is currently sampling to OEMs and is expected to begin shipping in commercial devices in Q3 of 2019.


Author: Srivatsan Sridhar

Srivatsan Sridhar is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast who is passionate about Mobile phones and Mobile apps. He uses the phones he reviews as his main phone. You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram