On December 1st, Qualcomm hosted the 2021 Snapdragon Tech Summit in Hawaii, where it unveiled its latest annual flagship chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Qualcomm stated that this is the first Qualcomm chip product to use a 4nm manufacturing process and the Arm v9 architecture, offering a 20% improvement in processing performance and a 30% increase in energy efficiency compared to the Snapdragon 888 chip. Lei Jun, CEO of Xiaomi, announced in a video at the launch event that the Xiaomi 12 series will be the first in the world to feature a 5G mobile platform based on the Snapdragon 8.

In terms of networking, the Snapdragon 8 mobile platform boasts the world's first 5G modem and RF solution that supports download speeds of up to 10Gbps. Moreover, it uses the Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 mobile connectivity system, which supports the fastest Wi-Fi speeds to date, reaching up to 3.6Gbps through Wi-Fi 6/6E.
In terms of imaging, the Snapdragon 8 mobile platform utilizes Snapdragon Sight imaging technology, which includes the first commercial 18-bit ISP for mobile devices, capable of capturing image data with a dynamic range 4000 times greater than the previous generation platform at a rate of 32 billion pixels per second. It is also the first mobile platform to support 8K HDR video capture and the ability to shoot in the HDR10+ format with over a billion colors. It also includes a fourth independent ISP, a new low-power, intelligent perception ISP that enables the camera to operate at extremely low power consumption.
Compared to the Snapdragon 888 chip, its graphics rendering speed is increased by 30% and power consumption is reduced by 25%. The new platform offers the Adreno Frame Motion Engine feature, which can render twice the number of frames at nearly the same power consumption.
Alex Katouzian, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile, Computing, and Infrastructure at Qualcomm, said, "The all-new Snapdragon 8 mobile platform will set a new benchmark for the next generation of flagship mobile devices and will bring new experiences in connectivity, imaging, AI, gaming, audio, and security to smartphones."
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform has attracted numerous OEMs and brands worldwide with its advanced 5G, AI, gaming, imaging, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies, including Xiaomi, vivo, Redmi, realme, OPPO, OnePlus, Nubia, iQOO, Honor, Black Shark, Sony, Sharp, ZTE, and Motorola.
Lei Jun, Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Xiaomi Group, said, "After months of joint optimization by engineers from Xiaomi and Qualcomm Technologies, the Xiaomi 12 series will be the first in the world to feature the all-new Snapdragon 8 mobile platform."
Shi Yujian, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at vivo, said, "With the arrival of the all-new Snapdragon 8 mobile platform, both the vivo brand and the iQOO brand will soon launch multiple smartphone products equipped with this platform."
Zhang Xiaoke, Vice President of Overseas Sales at OPPO, said, "OPPO expects to launch a flagship smartphone based on the all-new Snapdragon 8 mobile platform in the first quarter of 2022."