After a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC which left the first testers quite skeptical, Qualcomm is now working on an even more powerful, but above all better optimized replacement.
Qualcomm unveiled a new high-end Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip at the end of 2021. Engraved in 4 nm by Samsung, it will be found in most high-end smartphones of 2022 such as the Xiaomi 12 or the OnePlus 10 Pro. However, while the chip has just been adopted by smartphone manufacturerss, Qualcomm is already considering replacing it.
Indeed, according to the “Mobile Phone Chip Expert” leaker on Weibo, Qualcomm would like to replace Samsung’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus chip, designed this time by TSMC. In question, production problems at Samsung, but above all mixed returns. As we saw in the Xiaomi 12 Pro tests, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 overheats easily.
TSMC could save the Android smartphones of 2022
The fact that Qualcomm is working on a new chip is hardly a surprise. For several years now, we have been entitled to a new “Plus” variant of the company’s SoCs in the second half of the year. However, Qualcomm would like to advance its schedule this year to replace your Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 as soon as possible.
Users often point to the energy efficiency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which often tends to overheat when put under too much stress. It seems that the culprit is none other than Samsung’s 4nm engraving process, the 4LPX. For its part, TSMC offers a more advanced 4LPE engraving, which notably allows the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 to offer higher frequencies while being more stable and cooler.
As was already the case with the Snapdragon 865+ and Snapdragon 888+, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus should revise its frequencies upwards. We hope to find this new version as early as the third quarter of 2022. We hope that all Qualcomm chips will in the future be manufactured by TSMC. However, this may be complicated, Apple monopolizes a large part of the production capacity at the end of the year for its new iPhones.
Source: Mobile Phone Chip Expert
