Qualcomm just announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 Mobile Platform, the company’s latest premium SoC, after teasers at the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 launch event last month.
Dual Premium Tier Strategy
The introduction of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 expands Qualcomm’s premium tier family, providing consumers with increased choice and flexibility. The new platform aims to address growing demand for advanced capabilities across various mobile experiences, including Artificial Intelligence (AI), camera innovations, and immersive gaming.
Intuitive AI and On-Device Intelligence
A core focus of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is transforming the user-device interaction. The platform integrates the Qualcomm® Sensing Hub, which is designed to intelligently combine microphone and sensor inputs, allowing users to activate their AI assistant simply by picking up the device, based on the detection of the user’s intent to speak.
Furthermore, the Qualcomm® AI Engine facilitates the use of agentic AI assistants, which are capable of delivering personalized suggestions and context-aware interactions. Powering these on-device intelligent experiences is the Qualcomm® Hexagon™ NPU, which is reported to achieve up to a 46% improvement in performance.
Enhanced Flagship Performance
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is positioned as a high-speed mobile systems-on-a-chip. It features the custom-built Qualcomm Oryon™ CPU, which is stated to fuel peak clock speeds up to 3.8 GHz. This processing unit reportedly delivers a 36% improvement in overall performance and a 76% enhancement in web browsing responsiveness compared to Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This increased processing power is intended to support smoother multitasking, faster responsiveness, and improved efficiency for demanding applications.
Complementing the CPU is the Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU. This component utilizes an innovative sliced architecture, which Qualcomm states unlocks higher clock speeds and contributes to an 11% boost in gaming and graphics performance compared to Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 (SM8845) specifications
- 2 x Oryon Prime CPU at up to 3.8GHz, 6 x Oryon Performance CPUs at up to 3.32GHz
- 3nm Process Technology
- Built-in Qualcomm Snapdragon X80 5G modem-RF system
- 5G speeds of up to 10Gpbs down, mmWave: 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO, Sub-6 GHz: 4×6 MIMO, Converged mmWave-sub-6 transceiver
- Qualcomm Adreno next-gen GPU, Qualcomm Oryon CPU with hardware-based AI acceleration
- Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, Fused AI accelerator architecture, 12 scalar + 8 vector + 1 accelerator configuration, Hexagon Direct Link, Micro Tile Inferencing, Concurrency support, 64-bit memory virtualization, Support for INT2, INT4, INT8, INT16, FP8, FP16 precisions, including mix precision, Support for Gen AI model encryption for extra security
- Snapdragon Game Super Resolution, Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.1, Snapdragon Game Post Processing Accelerator
- HDR gaming (10-bit color depth, Rec. 2020 color gamut), Snapdragon Shadow Denoiser
- API support: OpenGL® ES 3.2, OpenCL™ 3.0 FP, Vulkan® 1.3
- Hardware-accelerated H.265, VP9, AV1 decoder, HDR Playback Codec support for HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision
- Up to 48MP triple camera, Up to 108 MP single camera with ZSL, Up to 108 MP single camera @ 30FPS with Zero Shutter Lag, Up to 320-megapixel photo capture, Qualcomm Spectra Image Signal Processor – Triple 20-bit AI-ISPs
- Engine for Visual Analytics (EVA) 5.0 with significant quality
improvement in local motion estimation (optical flow), Support for the latest HDR, LOFIC, DCG+VS, DCG, Staggered, QDOL, Less Blanking, and Multi-Frame HDR image sensors - Rec. 2020 color gamut photo and video capture, Up to 10-bit color depth photo and video capture
- 10-bit HEIF: HEIC photo capture, HEVC video capture, Google Ultra HDR photo capture
- Video capture HDR formats: HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision, 8K HDR video playback @ 30 FPS, 4K video capture @ 120 FPS, Slow-mo video at 1080p @ 480 FPS, Night Vision 3.0 low-light video capture, Video super resolution, Massive Multi-Frame Noise Reduction with AI, AI Video Processing, Enhanced AI video segmentation @ 4K60 FPS, Real-time AI skin and sky tone adjustments in 4K60 FPS
- On-Device Display Support: 4K+ @ 120Hz,QHD+ @ 240Hz, Maximum External Display Support: Up to 4K @ 120Hz Up to 8K @ 30Hz, Scaling and Detail Enhancement, 10-bit color depth, Rec. 2020 color gamut, HDR10, HDR10+, HDR vivid, and Dolby Vision HDR, Display Uniformity Correction, Display Aging Compensation
- Support for LP-DDR5x memory up to 4800 MHz, Memory Density: Up to 24 GB
- Qualcomm FastConnect 7900 Mobile Connectivity System: Wi-Fi 7 Peak speed: 5.8 Gbps, Wi-Fi 7 802.11be, 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6) Multi-gigabit, Integrated 802.11ac 2×2 (2-stream) MU-MIMO, 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 6GHz, Bluetooth 6.0, LE Audio, Dual Bluetooth antennas, Integrated Ultra Wideband (UWB), IEEE 802.15.4z, FiRA, CCC
- Snapdragon Sound Technology Suite: Qualcomm aptX Adaptive and aptX Lossless audio, Qualcomm Expanded Personal Area Network (XPAN) technology, Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec, Qualcomm Aqstic smart speaker amplifier: Total, Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N) Playback: -108dB, Qualcomm Aqstic Speaker Max, Qualcomm Audio and Voice Communication Suite, Spatial audio with head-tracking, Qualcomm Closed Loop Smart Haptics
- Concurrent GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, NavIC, Triple frequency GNSS (L1/L2C/L5), AI-based GNSS Location Gen 3, Sensor-Assisted Positioning 6.0, Urban pedestrian navigation with sidewalk accuracy, Global freeway lane-level vehicle navigation
- USB Version 3.1 Gen 2; USB Type-C Support, UFS 4.0
- Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 technology
Availability
Qualcomm said that global OEMs and smartphone brands, including iQOO, Honor, Meizu, Motorola, OnePlus and vivo, are poised to launch devices powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5, in the coming days.
OnePlus will be the first company to use the chip in its OnePlus Ace 6T in China first, and the phone will launch as OnePlus 15R globally, including India on December 17th.