Qualcomm Intros Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3: Pushing GenAI Into Premium Smartphones

Proving the adage “ask, and you shall receive”, Qualcomm is back this week for a second Snapdragon SoC announcement for mobile phones. This time, the company is announcing the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3, the latest-generation member of their relatively new Snapdragon 7+ lineup of SoCs. Like its predecessor, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, the Gen 3 is aimed at the premium segment of smartphones, offering high-end features with more modest performance and costs – but still a feature set and level of performance ahead of “mid-tier” smartphone SoCs. And, with Monday’s launch of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, this is a segment that has been bifurcated into two lines of SKUs over at Qualcomm.

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8s Gen 3: A Cheaper Chip For Premium Phones

With the launch of their flagship Snapdragon 8 SoC firmly behind them now, Qualcomm this morning is turning their collective head towards the premium market with the launch of another new Snapdragon 8 family SoC, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. The first of Qualcomm’s ‘s’-subseries of down-market parts to be released under the Snapdragon 8 banner, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (8sG3) is intended to be a bridge part between the last-gen flagship 8 Gen 2 and current-gen flagship 8 Gen 3, offering a not-quite-flagship experience at a lower price point than Qualcomm’s top SoC. The new SoC is set to be available globally, with the first phones announced this month, though as is often the case for Qualcomm’s “premium” market SoCs, it looks like only Chinese handset OEMs will be picking up the chip, at least initially.

Although Qualcomm prefers to draw comparisons to their current gen flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is by and large and enhanced version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Many of the hardware blocks of the 8G2 have been carried over to the new chip – either in whole or in terms of functionality – a process that is made very easy thanks to the fact that Qualcomm is building the chip on the same TSMC 4nm node as the 8G2 and 8G3. Compared to the 8G2 then, there are two key differentiators for the 8sG3: a newer CPU complex lifted from the 8G3, and official on-device generative AI support.

Starting with the CPU complex, Qualcomm is implementing Arm’s latest generation of Armv9 CPU cores here, meaning a mix of the Cortex-X4, Cortex-A720, and Cortex-A520. Relative to the flagship 8G3, the 8sG3 gives up one of its performance cores for another efficiency core, shifting the design from a 1/5/2 configuration to a 1/4/3 configuration – the same as the 8G2. The 8sG3 also loses some frequency headroom in the process, with the X4 prime core dropping from 3.3GHz to 3.0GHz, and the other CPU cores following similarly along.

Still, the 8sG3 should outperform the 8G2 in CPU tasks, which is the primary reason for replacing the CPU complex at all. Qualcomm is basically looking to offer an 8G2 with better CPU performance and energy efficiency, and using Arm’s latest CPU cores will be how they deliver on that.

Outside of the CPU complex, however, most of the rest of the functional blocks are either lifted from the 8G2, or are the same generation teams of features. This means the 8sG3’s integrated GPU offers hardware raytracing, for example, but not the global illumination support that was introduced for the flagship 8G3. The memory controller is also otherwise identical to the 8G2, with the SoC supporting a maximum of 24GB of LPDDDRX-8400.

The video recording and decoding capabilities of the 8sG3 are a distinct downgrade from the other Snapdragon 8 SoCs, however. Qualcomm has retained their trio of 18-bit Spectra ISPs – so the SoC can support up to 3 cameras – but all 8K support has been excised entirely. Instead, the 8sG3 can only record video at up to 4K, and even then only at 60fps, half the framerate of the 8G3/8G2. Slow-mo video capture has also been altered, as well; Qualcomm lists 1080p240 for this mode rather than 720p960. The higher resolution will no doubt be appreciated, but less so if this means it’s not possible to record above 240fps.

The lack of 8K video support also applies to the SoC’s video decode block, which can only decode videos up to 4K in resolution. Qualcomm has otherwise kept all of the underlying features of the video decode block at parity, however, so the 8sG3 gets support for AV1 decoding, along with Dolby Vision HDR.

Meanwhile, the DSP/NPU situation on the 8sG3 is a mixed bag. Officially, this SoC supports generative AI models (up to 10B parameters in size), something the 8G2 and its NPU were not capable of, and is otherwise only available on the 8G3. However, according to Qualcomm this is not the same generation of NPU IP as on the 8G3, and among other things it lacks support for speculative decoding (and I don’t see any mention of the newer NPU’s micro-tile inferencing improvements). So by all appearances, this is just the 8G2 NPU. Still, Qualcomm has at least rolled out some software/firmware updates to improve its functionality, giving it additional AI functionality right as exuberance for that is through the roof.

Finally, the comms side of the 8sG3 is essentially a slower version of the 8G2. Qualcomm is once again using their Snapdragon X70 integrated modem here, a 5G Release 17-generation design that offers 2x2 MIMO on mmWave, and 4x4 MIMO on sub-6G. Max upload speeds are unchanged, at 3.5Gbps, however max download speeds for the 8sG3 are 5Gbps, half that of the 8G2 (and 8G3). Paired with the X70 modem is Qualcomm’s FastConnect 7800 system, which offers Wi-Fi 7 support with 2x2 MIMO, as well as Bluetooth 5.4. The dual BT antenna feature from the other Snapdragon 8 chips has also made it over for this part.

Overall, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is intended to occupy a very specific niche within Qualcomm’s SoC lineup, offering a cheaper alternative to their flagship SoC without giving up too many features. The marketing messaging behind the chip is made somewhat complicated by the fact that last year at this time Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 for the premium market, which at least partially overlaps what they’re trying to do with the 8sG3. None the less, Qualcomm insists there’s a market for chips between the Snapdragon 7 series and the flagship Snapdragon 8 SoC, and so here we are.

Absent another 7+ chip this year, it’s hard to see the 8sG3 as anything other than the 7+’s successor. Still, where the 7+ was a souped-up 7, the 8sG3 is clearly a down-market 8, so it has some significant hardware advantages, particularly when it comes to memory bandwidth. It may just be that Qualcomm aimed a bit too low for the premium market with the specs for the 7+, so this is an attempt to aim a bit higher.

In any case, expect to see the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 picked up by many of the usual Chinese handset OEMs, including Honor, iQOO, realme, Redmi and Xiaomi. The first phones are expected to be announced this month.

Gallery: Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Press Deck

Qualcomm Swaps Out Arm for RISC-V for Next-Gen Google Wear OS Devices

As part of a broad collaborative agreement with Google, Qualcomm this week said that that it will be adopting the RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA) for a future Snapdragon Wear platform. Working together, the two companies will be bootstrapping a RISC-V ecosystem for Wear OS devices, with Qualcomm providing the hardware while Google expands its wearables OS and associated ecosystem of tools to support the new processor architecture.

Qualcomm's Wear processors have been the de facto chip of choice for Wear OS devices since the launch of Google's wearables platform almost a decade ago, with Qualcomm employing multiple generations of Arm CPU designs. This makes Qualcomm's decision to develop a RISC-V wearables SoC especially significant, as it not only represents one of the highest profile adoptions of RISC-V in a consumer platform to date, but it means that, depending on Qualcomm's specific product plans, this could see the overall Wear OS market make a hard turn from Arm to RISC-V in relatively short order.

As laid out in the relatively brief announcement from Qualcomm, the company will focus on development of RISC-V-based hardware suitable for wearable devices. While the company isn't disclosing detailed technical specifications of their in-development products, given the company's significant chip-design background, this likely includes customized RISC-V general purpose cores as well as sensors.

Notably here, the announcement is for "a RISC-V based wearables solution," rather than a complete pivot to RISC-V with multiple solutions. Wearables as a whole are a much smaller market than smartphones, so Qualcomm has historically not offered a particularly deep lineup of hardware – meaning that even one chip is significant. Still, this also means that Qualcomm is not formally dropping Arm from its Snapdragon Wear platform at this time.

Qualcomm's decision to embrace RISC-V for a future wearables SoC is significant news for the up-and-coming ISA, as this marks one of the highest profile adoptions of RISC-V in consumer gear to date. The open standard ISA has seen success over the last several years in the microcontroller market, with chip vendors adopting RISC-V CPU cores – often in place of Arm Cortex-M designs – as a means of having more control over their CPU core designs, and avoid paying ISA royalties in the process. Conversely, RISC-V has seen very limited adoption in the application processor space thus far, owing to the more complex chip designs and the overall smaller market. So Qualcomm's plans to use RISC-V in their Snapdragon Wear platform, which has traditionally been based on Arm Cortex-A designs, marks a significant milestone for the adoption of RISC-V into higher-performing mobile devices.

Similarly, Google's backing of the ISA by porting Wear OS to RISC-V is a major milestone on the software front. Bootstrapping a platform based on a new ISA is not just about the hardware, but the software as well, as there needs to be well-developed operating systems and applications to make the hardware useful. All of which requires significant tooling to enable that development. Google, for its part, is no stranger to embracing multiple ISAs – Android has long supported Arm, x86, and even MIPS – and the company already announced earlier this year that they're working to make RISC-V a "tier-1" platform for Android, so the company's efforts with Wear OS will go hand-in-hand with that.

Between the two companies, Google and Qualcomm essentially make up the software and hardware backend of the Wear OS ecosystem. Google's Wear OS, in turn, is used by a range of popular smart watches, including those from Samsung, Fossil Group, Motorola, and Casio.

"Qualcomm Technologies have been a pillar of the Wear OS ecosystem, providing high performance, low power systems for many of our OEM partners," said Bjorn Kilburn, GM of Wear OS by Google. "We are excited to extend our work with Qualcomm Technologies and bring a RISC-V wearable solution to market."

Meanwhile, the decision to use RISC-V for wearables also has the potential to be a big change for the business side of Qualcomm. The company is currently butting heads with Arm over licensing and royalty rates, particularly in regards to their acquired Nuvia IP. That relationship has already devolved to lawsuits, including Arm looking to block Qualcomm's use of Nuvia-designed Arm CPU cores.

In short, swapping out Arm for RISC-V would allow Qualcomm to do away with paying royalties to Arm for Snapdragon Wear chips. The current royalties aren't thought to be extravagant – Qualcomm is using Cortex-A53 here – but a penny saved is a penny booked for Qualcomm's quarterly earnings. If nothing else, the very public announcement about the development of a RISC-V Snapdragon Wear SoC can be considered a shot across Arm's bow, as a reminder that Qualcomm could eventually do the same thing with bigger and higher royalty bearing chips.

"We are excited to leverage RISC-V and expand our Snapdragon Wear platform as a leading silicon provider for Wear OS," said Dino Bekis, vice president and general manager, Wearables and Mixed Signal Solutions, Qualcomm Technologies. " Our Snapdragon Wear platform innovations will help the Wear OS ecosystem rapidly evolve and streamline new device launches globally."

Asus Announces ROG Phone 7 & ROG Phone 7 Ultimate Gaming Smartphones

Many gaming-eccentric smartphones may already be on the market, but Asus wants that throne all for itself. The company recently announced its latest ROG Phone 7 series of high-end gaming smartphones during their "For Those Who Dare" virtual event. The ROG Phone 7 series targets enthusiast mobile gamers. Asus has revealed two models for this generation: the ROG Phone 7 and ROG Phone 7 Ultimate. Both devices share identical specifications, while the Ultimate variant has a few extra bells and whistles that may interest some gamers.

The ROG Phone 7 series joins the ranks of the Samsung Galaxy S23, the OnePlus 11, the vivo iQOO 11, and the Xiaomi 13 Pro that utilize Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (SM8550) SoC. The 4 nm SoC conforms to an octa-core design consisting of one sizeable prime core (Cortex-X3), four performance cores (two Cortex-A715 and two Cortex-A710), and three efficiency cores (Cortex-A510). Like the majority competition, Asus uses the vanilla SM8550 with a 3.2 GHz clock speed on the Kryo prime core. However, Samsung's Galaxy S23 lineup uses a special-binned variant that hits 3.36 GHz.

On the graphics side, the SoC has the Adreno 740, which offers 25% more performance than the Adreno 730, according to Qualcomm's claims. Adreno 740 also brings other exciting features, such as support for hardware ray tracing and Vulkan 1.3 support. The base model ROG Phone 7 comes with 12 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory, while the higher-specced version and the Ultimate bump that up to 16 GB. Similarly, the base model phone comes with 256 GB of UFS 4.0 storage, which is bumped up to 512 GB on the more premium models. It's a significant upgrade over the ROG Phone 6's storage, which started at just 128 GB. The switch to newer UFS 4.0 storage should also improve sequential read speeds – technically as high as 4.2 GB/s – though as always, real world performance is going to depend on the underlying NAND used.

With regards to design, Asus seemingly believes the design of their ROG phones doesn't need any significant changes if it works. To that end, the ROG Phone 7 series sports a similar design to last year's ROG Phone 6 series, with the ROG Phone 7 series receiving only a minor facelift. Consequently, the two smartphones have the same footprint (173 x 77 x 10.3 mm) and weight (239 g), placing the ROG Phone 7 series' dimensions more or less along the range of the Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. The ROG Phone 7 is available in Storm White and Phantom Black colors, while the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate only comes in the former option. The smartphone is IP54-certified – only offering splash resistance as opposed to being completely waterproof/submersible – so owners should take care of their devices when near water.

In terms of build quality and materials, ROG Phone 7 series is designed to have every feel of a premium smartphone. The device has an aluminum body accentuated by a dual-glass design, featuring Gorilla Glass Victus for protection on the front and ordinary Gorilla Glass 3 at the rear. The Samsung AMOLED HDR10+ screen measures 6.78 inches and has a screen-to-body ratio of around 82%. The always-on 10-bit display has a 2,448 x 1,080 pixels resolution, resulting in a pixel density of 395 PPI. Being a gaming smartphone, the ROG Phone 7 series flaunts a peak refresh rate of 165 Hz and supports 10-point multitouch and glove touch. In addition, a hidden fingerprint reader resides under the display. Although the screen on the ROG Phone 7 is quite similar to the ROG Phone 6, the newer has a higher maximum brightness (1,500 nits vs. 1,200 nits). Meanwhile, the Ultimate version of the phone also adds a secondary pOLED display at the back of the device. The tiny display allows consumers to display different animations to add flair to the smartphone.

Although the ROG Phone 7 is a gaming smartphone, the device has a pretty decent camera setup. The primary shooter is a 50-megapixel camera that leverages Sony's IMX766 sensor with an f/1.9 aperture. PDAF is the only means of autofocus, though. Meanwhile, the ultrawide camera uses a 13-megapixel sensor with a 120-degree field of view with an f/2.2 aperture. The macro camera, on the other hand, is just a five-megapixel snapper with an f/2.0 aperture. The camera combination allows the ROG Phone 7 to offer 8K recording at 24 FPS, 4K at 60 FPS, 1080p at 240 FPS, or 720p at 480 FPS. Finally, the selfie camera is a 32-megapixel Quad Bayer sensor with an f/2.5 aperture with 1080p at 30 FPS recording capability.

Gallery: ROG Phone 7

Asus has revamped the brand's GameCool 7 cooling system to keep the ROG Phone 7 running cool. The vendor uses a boron nitride-based thermal compound for the CPU. In addition, the cooler has a vapor chamber with six liquid-return channels and graphite sheets for maximum heat dissipation. For long gaming sessions, Asus recommends slapping on the AeroActive Cooler 7, a beefy thermoelectric Peltier cooler that attaches to the flap on the back of the smartphone so that the cooler is in direct contact with the chipset's heatsink. The cooler communicates with the smartphone via the USB Type-C port. The dual-cooling design helps lower the smartphone's back and touch panel temperatures. Besides cooling, the AeroActive Cooler 7 adds a small sub-woofer and four additional ergonomically placed buttons to the ROG Phone 7 series.

The AeroActive Cooler 7 comes bundled with the ROG Phone 7 Ultimate, while for vanilla ROG Phone 7 users, it can be purchased separately. Asus hasn't shared the pricing for the stand-alone AeroActive Cooler 7, though the previous version retailed for $99.

The smartphone has two 12 x 16 mm dual front-facing speakers, and with the integrated sub-woofer from the AeroActive Cooler 7, gamers can enjoy a 2.1 audio experience. The smartphone still provides a standard 3.5 mm connector for connecting headphones.

Asus outfitted the ROG Phone 7 with a 6,000 mAh battery, which is the same capacity as on the prior ROG Phone 6. The smartphone arrives with a big 65-watt HyperCharger USB PD charger. According to Asus, the smartphone only takes around 42 minutes to get a full charge. WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity are present, thanks to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chipset. NFC is supported as well. The shortlist of I/O ports on the ROG Phone 7 series includes one USB 3.1 Gen Type-C port and one USB 2.0 Type-C port.

Finally, running on top of the ROG Phone 7's hardware is the latest Android 13 (Tiramisu), with Asus' custom ROG theme over it. With this generation, Asus has pledged to give the smartphone two major OS updates and up to four years of security updates.

For the initial release of the ROG Phone 7 series, Asus is focusing on Europe, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Pre-orders have already started, and although Asus has not announced a shipping date, it's notable that pre-orders are set to close on April 30th. Meanwhile, the phone is slated to make its way to North America and other markets a bit later, with a looser-defined Q2 launch date.

The European pricing for the phone starts at €999 (~$1,100) for the base model, and €1199 (~$1,325) for the higher capacity 16GB/512GB version. Meanwhile the Ultimate variation of the phone will cost €1,399 (~$1,550). Asus has not shared North American pricing for the phone, so that information is likely to come closer to the phone's North American launch later in the quarter.

Samsung and AMD Renew GPU Architecture Licensing Agreement: More RDNA Exynos Chips to Come

In a joint press release released this evening, AMD and Samsung have announced that the two companies are renewing their GPU architecture licensing agreement for Samsung’s Exynos SoCs. The latest multi-year deal between AMD and Samsung will see Samsung continuing to license AMD’s Radeon graphics architectures for use in the company’s Arm-based Exynos SoCs, with the two companies committing to work together over “multiple generations” of GPU IP.

The extension of the licensing agreement comes just shy of 4 years after Samsung and AMD announced their initial licensing agreement in June of 2019. The then-groundbreaking agreement would see Samsung license Radeon GPU IP for use in their flagship Exynos SoCs in an effort to get a jump on the mobile SoC market, tapping AMD’s superior Radeon graphics IP to get access to newer features and more efficient designs sooner than Samsung otherwise might have with their own internal efforts.

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2: Premium Segment SoC Gets a Cortex-X CPU Core

After a 2021/2022 product cycle that was a bit more interesting than Qualcomm perhaps would have liked, 2023 has been a far more straightforward year for the prolific SoC and cellular modem vendor. After releasing the first of their Gen 2 family of parts earlier this year with the flagship-class Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the company is preparing to iterate through the next step of its product stack with the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. Aimed at what’s become Qualcomm’s traditional “premium” market segment, which focuses on flagship-level features with more modest performance and costs, for the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, Qualcomm is aiming to deliver a sizable performance boost to the platform.

The Apple 2022 Fall iPhone Event Live Blog 10am PT (17:00 UTC)

It's that time of the year again - Apple's fall iPhone event, where we expect the Cupertino company to unveil its newest generation family of iPhones - what should be the iPhone 14 series.

With Apple seemingly satisfied with its current industrial design as embodied by the iPhone 13 lineup, it will be interesting to see what the company does to iterate on its flagship phones this year – especially the high-end Pro designs. In which case, this year may be all about the guts, and what Apple does to update things like the cameras and displays.

Meanwhile, it's all but assured that Apple will introduce a new generation processor in the form of the A16. Apple's latest iterations of SoC silicon have been ground-breaking and industry leading, and we expect the new chip to once again push the envelope in performance and efficiency, as Apple is wont to do.

The live blog will start along with the event at 10am PT / 17:00 UTC / 19:00 CEST.

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 and 4 Gen 1 SoCs: Updating Mid-Range and Entry-Level Phones

Qualcomm this morning is taking the wraps off a pair of new SoCs for the mid-range and entry-level smartphone markets. Refreshing the company’s longstanding 600 and 400 series of chips, Qualcomm is announcing the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 and Snapdragon 4 Gen 1. Both SoCs are receiving similar spec bumps, incorporating newer and faster IP blocks from Qualcomm – such as Arm Cortex-A78 derived CPU cores – as well as moving to newer, more contemporary manufacturing processes.

The Snapdragon 600/400 lineups were last updated in mid and early 2021 respectively, so as Qualcomm is already preparing for 2023, the time has finally come to update the bottom half of their product stack. Following Qualcomm’s broad cascading IP strategy, this generation of parts sees both SoC lineups migrate to Cortax-A78 CPUs for their main CPU cores, and in the case of the 6 Gen 1, doubling the number of high-performance CPU cores. Both SoCs also come with faster Adreno GPUs, though in traditional Qualcomm fashion, the company isn’t offering much in the way of details on the underlying hardware there.

Notably, however, Qualcomm’s 2023 mid-range/low-end parts aren’t making the jump to the Armv9 architecture. Unlike the 8 Gen 1 and 7 Gen 1, which incorporated Arm’s new Armv9 cores, Qualcomm’s cascading development strategy means that the 6 and 4 series will remain a bit farther behind the curve. For end users this should have little significance for the moment, but for smartphone vendors and software developers, it does mean Qualcomm won’t complete the Armv9 transition for at least another generation.

Meanwhile, coming up on nearly a year since Qualcomm announced their initial Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 SoC, today’s announcement from Qualcomm brings their remaining smartphone SoC families in alignment with their new product branding strategy. The 6 and 4 series pick up from where the 600 and 400 series left off, respectively, resetting the counted with the inaugural Gen 1 parts. Like the rest of simplified “Gen” series, this also means that Qualcomm is doing away with individual model numbers for its Kyro/Hexagon/Adreno/Spectra blocks, obfuscating a bit what generation of IP Qualcomm is using there.

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 7 Gen 1: Bringing Armv9 To Premium Smartphones

Alongside the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, as part of Qualcomm’s “Snapdragon Night” event in China this evening, the company is also rolling out a brand-new SoC for the premium phone market, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. Aimed downmarket of Qualcomm’s traditional flagship SoCs, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 is the first non-flagship SoC to be introduced by Qualcomm since they implemented their new platform naming and differentiation scheme. But, like the Snapdragon 7xx series before it, the latest Snapdragon 7 SoC follows the same design mantra of offering flagship-level features with more modest performance and costs.

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1: Moving to TSMC for More Speed, Lower Power

As the dark of the night rolls into China this evening, Qualcomm is hosting a mobile-focused product launch event they’re calling “Snapdragon Night”. Headlining the event is the announcement of the company’s new flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. A mid-generation update to their flagship smartphone SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the 8+ Gen 1 follows Qualcomm’s annual tradition of releasing a refresh product to boost performance and to give partners something new to work with for the second half of the year. And for this year in particular, we’re looking at a very notable change in chips from Qualcomm.

Unlike previous generations where Qualcomm merely launched a faster speed bin of their existing silicon, for 2022 we have something more substantial to talk about. Qualcomm has switched up foundries entirely – moving from Samsung to TSMC – and as a result is rolling out a new die. Thanks to this, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Qualcomm is reaping something of a one-off manufacturing gain, allowing them to both dial up CPU and GPU performance while simultaneously cutting power consumption.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Performance Preview: Sizing Up Cortex-X2

At the recent Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit, the company announced its new flagship smartphone processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Replacing the Snapdragon 888, this new chip is set to be in a number of high performance flagship smartphones in 2022. The new chip is Qualcomm’s first to use Arm v9 as well as Samsung’s 4nm process node technology. In advance of devices coming in Q1, we attended a benchmarking session using Qualcomm’s reference design, and had a couple of hours to run tests focused on the new performance core, based on Arm’s X2 core IP.

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: Flagship SoC for 2022 Devices

At this year’s Tech Summit from Hawaii, it’s time again for Qualcomm to unveil and detail the company’s most important launch of the year, and to showcase the newest Snapdragon flagship SoCs that will be powering our upcoming 2022 devices. Today, as the first of a few announcements at the event, Qualcomm is announcing the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the direct follow-up to last year’s Snapdragon 888.

MediaTek Announces Dimensity 9000: Supercharged Flagship SoC on 4nm

Today, MediaTek is re-entering the flagship SoC space with a bang. The Dimensity 9000 is the first Armv9 SoC, with X2, A710 and A510 cores, large new GPU, massive new ISP, first LPDDR5X, and all in a new TSMC N4 process node.

Samsung Announces First LPDDR5X at 8.5Gbps

After the publication of the LPDDR5X memory standard earlier this summer, Samsung has now been the first vendor to announce new modules based on the new technology.

The LPDDR5X standard will start out at speeds of 8533Mbps, a 33% increase over current generation LPDDR5 based products which are running at 6400Mbps.

Google's Tensor inside of Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro: A Look into Performance & Efficiency

Today, we’re taking an in-depth look at Google's Tensor SoC, the chip powering their new Pixel 6 family of phones. The Tensor is Google's first custom-designed SoC, and incorporates a mix of custom Google IP blocks – such as the new edgeTPU – as well as some off-the-shelf blocks from Samsung. Google designed the Tensor SoC to give them better performance, particularly in machine learning workloads, which Google is increasingly favoring.

So sit back as we dive into Google's first SoC and document what exactly it’s composed of, showcase the differences and similarities between other SoCs in the market, and come to a better understanding of what kind of IPs Google has integrated into the chip to make it unique and warrant calling it a Google SoC.

Google Announces Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro: The New Real Flagship Pixels

Today, after many weeks, even months of leaks and teasers, Google has finally announced the new Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro – their new flagship line-up of phones for 2021 and carrying them over into next year. The two phones had been teased quite on numerous occasions and have probably one of the worst leak records of any phone ever, and today’s event revealed little unknowns, but yet still Google manages to put on the table a pair of very interesting phones, if not, the most interesting Pixel phones the company has ever managed to release.

Apple Announces M1 Pro & M1 Max: Giant New Arm SoCs with All-Out Performance

Today’s Apple Mac keynote has been very eventful, with the company announcing a new line-up of MacBook Pro devices, powered by two different new SoCs in Apple’s Silicon line-up: the new M1 Pro and the M1 Max.

The M1 Pro and Max both follow-up on last year’s M1, Apple’s first generation Mac silicon that ushered in the beginning of Apple’s journey to replace x86 based chips with their own in-house designs. The M1 had been widely successful for Apple, showcasing fantastic performance at never-before-seen power efficiency in the laptop market. Although the M1 was fast, it was still a somewhat smaller SoC – still powering devices such as the iPad Pro line-up, and a corresponding lower TDP, naturally still losing out to larger more power-hungry chips from the competition.

Today’s two new chips look to change that situation, with Apple going all-out for performance, with more CPU cores, more GPU cores, much more silicon investment, and Apple now also increasing their power budget far past anything they’ve ever done in the smartphone or tablet space.

Apple's iPhone 13 Series Screen Power, Battery Life Report - Long Lasting Devices

Following our last week’s preview into the new iPhone 13 series’ A15 chip, which impressed us tremendously due to its efficiency gains, we promised next to have a closer look at the new phone’s battery life and how the new display generation and screen efficiency ties in with the SoC efficiency and increased battery capacities this generation.

The Apple A15 SoC Performance Review: Faster & More Efficient

In preparation for our full iPhone device review, we’re having a dedicated look at the new A15 SoC from Apple – following quite vague performance claims, how does the new chip stand up against its predecessor & competition?

Samsung's new 200MP HP1 Sensor: Sensible, or Marketing?

This week, Samsung LSI announced a new camera sensor that seemingly is pushing the limits of resolution within a mobile phone. The new S5KHP1, or simply HP1 sensor, pushes the resolution above 200 megapixels, almost doubling that of what’s currently being deployed in contemporary hardware in today’s phones.

Editor's Note: Updated Results and Conclusion for Xiaomi 11T Review

After a new firmware update, we've updated our original review of the Xiaomi 11T, showcasing better battery life results, and a more positive conclusion to the device.

The Xiaomi 11T & 11T Pro Review: Two Chips, With a Battery Focus

Today Xiaomi is announcing three new devices – the 11T, the 11T Pro and the 11 Lite 5G NE. We’ve had the first two in for review for a bit now and are able to give some first-hand experiences with the phones today.

Apple Announces iPhone 13 Series: A15, New Cameras, New Screens

Today Apple held its fall 2021 iPhone launch event, and we’ve gotten 4 new iPhones from the new iPhone 13 series: the iPhone 13 mini, the iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max.

The Apple 2021 Fall iPhone Event Live Blog 10am PT (17:00 UTC)

It's that time of the year again - Apple's fall iPhone event, where we expect the Cupertino company to unveil its newest generation family of iPhones - likely the iPhone 13 series.

Last year's iPhone 12 series introduced a new industrial design, and we generally expect Apple to iterate and refine upon the form of last generation's phones. The industry rumblings are that we might be seeing some new generation OLED panels for the Pro models and high refresh rates for the first time. Cameras remain a mystery on whether Apple will upgrade things this generation.

Naturally, we also expect Apple to introduce a new generation processor in the form of the A15. Apple's latest iterations of SoC silicon have been ground-breaking and industry leading, and we very much expect the new chip to further push the envelope in performance and efficiency.

The live blog will start along with the event at 10am PT / 17:00 UTC / 19:00 CEST.

The Axon 30 with Under Display Camera: Hands-on Mini-Review

The Axon 30 uses a new second-generation under-display camera with an OLED from Visionox, and features the Snapdragon 870- does it convince enough for the $499 price tag?

Samsung Display Announces Polarizer-less OLED With 25% Less Power

Today Samsung Display Company (SDC) is announcing the introduction and mass production of a new generation of OLED panel called “Eco²OLED”.

The "Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders" vs ROG5 Preview: Branded vs Original

Today we’re reviewing a rather unusual device, the new ASUS “Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders”. The device had been first announced a month ago by Qualcomm and ASUS, and represents a sort of weird kind of collaboration between the two companies. 

HONOR Announces Magic 3 Series: With Snapdragon & Google, A new Start

Today, we see HONOR announce the company’s new flagship Magic 3 series of devices. The new Magic 3 series consists of 3 new phones, the “regular” Magic 3, the Magic 3 Pro, and the Magic 3 Pro+.

Samsung Unpacked 2021 Part 2: Galaxy Z Flip 3 & Z Fold 3 Announced

Today Samsung is holding its second Mobile Unpacked event for the year, announcing the new Galaxy Z Flip 3 and the new Galaxy Z Fold 3.

Google Teases Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro with new "Tensor" SoC

Today Google has teased its new upcoming Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro phones; in what is likely an attempt to get leaks and the upcoming narrative of the product under control, as opposed to the previous years of quite severe product spoilers several months ahead of the actual official product launches, the company is themselves revealing large important bits about the upcoming new flagship phones.

Google reveals that this year’s Pixel phones will be called the Pixel 6 and the Pixel 6 Pro, two seemingly similarly sized devices in a high-end configuration with some compromises, and one in an all-bells-and-whistles uncompromising device. In a more exclusive prebriefing with The Verge, it’s stated that the new devices will be truly flagship specced phones competing at the highest end of the market, marking an important step away from the mid-range of the last several years. This is a large shift for Google and has been one of our main criticisms over the last few years – a seeming lack of clear direction where Google wants to be with their Pixel phones, at least until now.

The ZTE Axon 30 Ultra Review - Something Surprisingly Different

ZTE is one of the rare vendors active in the US market, which makes the new Axon 30 Ultra a quite interesting device that’s surprisingly viable in the current flagship landscape. At $749 it makes the right compromises.

JEDEC Publishes LPDDR5X Standard at up to 8533 Mbps

JEDEC and the JC-42.6 Subcommittee for Low Power Memories has announced the publication of the new JESD209-5B standard which now includes improvements to LPDDR5, as well as an extension for the standard in the form of new LPDDR5X.