Qualcomm last week announced its Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor. The significant improvement is enhanced AI that will operate behind the scenes to improve the user experience significantly on phones due to launch in a few weeks.
This AI implementation should significantly improve most functions, from how well the modem works to optimize both voice and data connections to improvements in image capture, viewing, and overall power efficiency.
In short, the next generation of Snapdragon 8 premium smartphones should significantly outperform any prior generation and any phone that doesn’t use Qualcomm technology (like, say, oh, iPhones).
Let’s talk about how AI will increasingly improve your smartphone experience, then close with my product of the week, an AMD-based business notebook from HP that may be the new ideal in size and capability for performance-oriented mobile workers.
Qualcomm’s Coming AI Disruption
The 2020s are likely to be known as the decade of AI. Much of where artificial intelligence is deployed today is in outward-focused applications for sales and marketing. The AI we deal with most, like that from Google and Apple, are currently not truly AI but speech front-ends to existing internet search engines.
This is why the experiences anticipated by the promise of Siri-like interactions on our phones have fallen short of expectations. But much like AI in the rest of the tech industry is evolving, so is the AI capability in our smartphones, and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 solution is a significant AI boost.
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Performance and battery life will benefit initially from this AI improvement, both of which received criticism in the first generation of Snapdragon 8.
For graphics performance, AI can be used to allow real-time upsampling, resulting in better images for things like videos and games, with lower processing overhead, up to 25% faster GPU performance, up to 4.35 times faster AI performance (depending on the use case), and much more efficient power use for improved battery life.
Now let’s move to feature improvements which are also significant.
Network, Camera, Sound
Networking improvements include a move to Wi-Fi 7, the latest Wi-Fi technology, providing far quicker data rates and potentially greater ranges. However, testing will need to wait on the availability of Wi-Fi 7 routers which will be coming to the market shortly.
AI improvements in the camera include more accurate facial and object recognition coupled with a sharp increase in processor-centric features like background blue, which has become popular for video calls since the pandemic (since not all of us keep our offices neat enough to share).
Expect the AI camera features to better provide for automated picture editing, making the resulting image far more professional looking and all the objects in the frame clearer. The new camera capability should include 8K HDR video encoding, coming just in time for the ramp to 8K TVs and monitors due in 2023 and, hopefully, much-reduced prices from what we have today.
For most of us, this will simply be premature obsolescence protection, assuring that when we finally get an 8K display, we’ll have something we can show on it.
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