Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Archives

MWC 2023 Day 2: TECNO Phantom V Fold, realme GT3 240W, CloudSIM™ and More

It was yet another busy day in chilly Barcelona with some interesting announcements. Nothing revealed details of its upcoming smartphone, realme announced the GT3 240W with the fastest charging tech, TECNO showed off its folding smartphone, Oasis Smart-SIM showcased its CloudSIM™ solution, and much more. Below is our quick summary of the announcements from Day 2 of the MWC 2023:

TECNO joins the foldable revolution

TECNO made its MWC debut launching several products, including the Phantom V Fold, Spark 10 Pro selfie phone and Megabook S1 2023 laptop. Of course, the standout product announced at the event was the TECNO Phantom V Fold book-type foldable smartphone. Under the hood is a MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ SoC, making it the second folding smartphone powered by MediaTek SoC after the OPPO Find N2.

The smartphone features a 6.42-inch 120Hz LTPO AMOLED cover screen and a 7.85-inch 2K 120Hz LTPO folding display inside, which is bigger than the Galaxy Z Fold4. It comes with a 5,000mAh battery and 45W fast charging. The TECNO Phantom V fold will first launch in India at a price of $1,099 for the 12GB RAM and 256GB storage version, making it the most affordable book-type folding smartphone. There will also be a 512GB storage version priced at $1,222.

The Africa market, where TECNO is the #1 brand, is relatively dominated by the low-end segment. Expansion to overseas markets, where consumers are ready to pay a more premium amount, has also presented an opportunity for TECNO to launch devices in higher price bands. For that, foldables currently seem to be the perfect option to make a statement in the premium segment. Since it is a new segment, OEMs also have opportunities to launch products at new price points. The debut of its foldable at the MWC 2023 cements TECNO’s global aspirations.

realme GT3 240W brings the fastest charging tech to smartphones

realme is holding true to its ‘Dare to leap’ motto. In 2022, it was the first OEM to offer a 150W charging-capable smartphone. The company is pushing the boundaries further and has now become the first brand to introduce a 240W-capable smartphone. At the MWC 2023, realme announced its latest phone, the GT3, featuring 240W charging capability. According to the realme presentation, the 240W technology is capable of fully charging the GT3’s 4,600mAh battery in roughly 10 minutes, and it can charge to 50% capacity in just four minutes.

Courtesy – Madhav Sheth (realme)

GT3 is the fastest phone in the industry to charge from 0 to 20% in only 80 seconds, which realme showcased in the real-time demo during the MWC announcement. realme also claims this is the industry’s fastest charging speed while gaming. A vapor chamber liquid cooling system takes care of the overall health of the battery by reducing extra heat produced during fast charge. realme added multiple sensors and a fireproof design to the new device while also addressing the major issue of battery longevity, which reduces due to fast charge. The GT3’s battery can be at 80% battery health after 1,600 charging cycles which is double the industry standard of 800 cycles. The realme GT3 price starts at $649 for the 8GB RAM with 128GB storage variant.

Oasis Smart-SIM demonstrates new CloudSIM™ solution

At the MWC 2023, Oasis Smart-SIM and TATA Communications jointly revealed their latest innovation, the CloudSIM™. It is a remote hardware SIM which is stored in a dedicated, secure, GSMA-certified environment. CloudSIM™ is primarily aimed at use cases that do not require permanent connectivity. The overall cost of connectivity is reduced by limiting the number of profiles required for fleet operations and providing on-demand connectivity. The below video demonstrates some of the key use cases of the CloudSIM™ solution.

Nothing Phone (2) to be powered by Qualcomm flagship SoC

Nothing made a small announcement at the MWC 2023 about its upcoming smartphone. While it did not reveal much, the company did mention that the next smartphone will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8-series chipset. This will be a big upgrade from the existing 7-series SoC on the Nothing Phone (1). However, Nothing did not mention which chipset it will be using, so it could be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or could also be last year’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 SoC. Looks like we will have to await further details.

Thales launches the world’s first GSMA-certified iSIM with Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon mobile platform

Thales has announced that its integrated SIM (iSIM) solution has now been certified by the GSMA and is ready to be deployed commercially with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform. In 2021, Thales, Vodafone and Qualcomm had shown a working demonstration of the iSIM.

What is iSIM? And why is it important?

iSIM is a type of SIM that is directly integrated into the processor of the device. As the next step of SIM evolution, iSIM offers significantly more space reduction than eSIMs do and lowers power consumption. This is also part of a bigger trend where we have seen multiple components, such as the modem, getting integrated into the processor of the device. Along with smartphones, iSIMs also bring multiple benefits to the IoT ecosystem.

Image Courtesy: Thales

Currently, around 20% of smartphones shipped in 2022 were eSIM capable. The adoption of eSIM in smartphones has been slower than what was expected three years ago due to a variety of reasons. However, the biggest hurdle has been the need for additional components required to add eSIM capability.

For iSIMs, it would be a different case because the SIM is integrated into the processor and its adoption, unlike the eSIM, will be dependent on the support of chipsets. The iSIM will see faster adoption than the eSIM because the number of players providing chipsets is limited. While we have already seen multiple IoT devices with iSIM, the first iSIM smartphone is expected in 2024.

Huawei Watch GT Cyber gets an extreme makeover

Huawei showcased its Watch GT Cyber, which is already available in China since November 2022. The smartwatch comes with interchangeable cases, and the display updates when inserted into a new case. It uses magnets along with mechanical parts to remain connected with the cases. The concept is similar to smart bands with changeable straps but with innovation that makes the whole watch body different. We will have to see if Huawei allows third-party case makers to function with the smartwatch.

The Huawei Watch GT Cyber flaunts a 1.32-inch circular display with a resolution of 466x466pixels and a pixel density of 352ppi. It is water resistant up to 5ATM and comes with all the regular sensors like a barometer and magnetometer. The battery can last up to seven days on a single charge. It also has a Bluetooth calling feature.

Huawei showcases the 5.5G era and its use cases

With 5.5G, Huawei aims to offer 10X better performance over 5G, and thus create 100-fold business opportunities by opening up five frontiers:

1) Expansion in services with immersive and interactive experiences

Online 3D malls and 24K VR gaming to become mainstream. While 5G allows these use cases, 5.5G will enhance them. Huawei expects over one billion users.

2) Enable industry digitalization

Huawei expects private networks to increase 10x as the tech becomes more capable. It forecasts one million private 5G networks by 2030.

3) Cloud applications entering a new era, creating new opportunities for network connectivity

The company aims to reduce latency which will further make cloud applications more reliable and accessible.

4) Cellular networks cover all IoT applications and passive IoT enables 100 billion connections

Passive IoT tags (e.g. RFID) will allow further solutions to better warehouse management, asset tracking, and other scenarios. Huawei expects 100 billion passive IoT tags per year from 30 billion in coming years as industries get more digital.

5) From communication to integrated sensing and communication, facilitating new services

Huawei aims to develop a more connected world using the sensing capabilities of 5.5G. It would help bring up information about areas where cameras are unable to work like during fog or rain. This would make transportation much safer.

With inputs from Varun Mishra, Karn Chauhan, Ankit Malhotra and Harshit Rastogi.
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MWC 2023 Day 0: Xiaomi 13 Series Launched, New Nokia Logo and More

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2023 kicked off in Barcelona, Spain. Some of the biggest names in the tech industry will be showcasing their new launches and innovations during the four-day event. Counterpoint Research analysts are on the ground covering all the major announcements, so stay tuned! Ahead of the show, major tech companies like Xiaomi, Nokia HMD and Motorola made some announcements. Here is our quick analysis and summary of the same:

Xiaomi 13 Series, Watch S2 Pro, Buds 4 Pro, and Electric Scooter 4 Ultra

Xiaomi took the stage to announce three new smartphones, a smartwatch, a TWS and an electric scooter. The Xiaomi 13 and 13 Pro smartphones were the stars of the show, featuring a Leica co-engineered camera system, which converges both the hardware and software tuning for a professional photography experience. Both smartphones are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC, which brings performance and efficiency gains, among other features.

The more premium among the two, the Xiaomi 13 Pro, comes with a Sony IMX989 50MP primary 1-inch camera sensor, a 50MP floating telephoto lens, and a 50MP ultrawide camera as well. Both the regular 13 and 13 Pro smartphones feature the Leica Vivid and Authentic modes, along with a bunch of filters, which enables the Leica camera experience on smartphones. The 75mm equivalent telephoto lens on the Xiaomi 13 Pro also offers professional-style portrait effects.

Apart from still photography, Xiaomi has also strongly focused on the videography aspect of its smartphones. The two new devices can capture crisp 8K 24fps videos and 4K night videos, and a 10-bit Log mode. They also feature Dolby Vision video recording, similar to what Apple iPhones offer. The Xiaomi 13 offers 67W fast wired charging and 50W wireless charging. Meanwhile, the Xiaomi 13 Pro is powered with 120W fast wired charging, which can charge the phone’s battery to full capacity in just about 19 minutes.

WATCH: Xiaomi 13 Pro First Impressions

Xiaomi unveiled a third smartphone during the event called the 13 Lite which boasts dual front cameras with a 32MP sensor and an 8MP depth sensor. The smartphone’s features include dynamic framing to keep everyone in the frame in focus, and dual LEDs to help capture better selfies in low-light settings. The 13 Lite also has a vlog mode for content creators to record and edit on the go. The smartphone is powered by a Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC.

Xiaomi also announced the Watch S1 Pro smartwatch with a 1.47-inch AMOLED display, advanced health tracking, over 100 fitness modes and more. The smartwatch has built-in GPS, wireless charging and includes Bluetooth phone calling as well. On the other hand, the Xiaomi Buds 4 Pro TWS headphones come with 11mm drivers, Hi-res audio support, six ANC modes and three transparency modes among other features. It also comes with multi-device connectivity, which allows it to connect with two devices at a time.

Xiaomi’s final announcement was the Electric Scooter 4 Ultra with an enhanced 70 kms range, IP55 water resistance, dual suspensions and more. In terms of pricing, the Xiaomi 13 Lite will be available for €499, the 13 starts at €999 and the 13 Pro starts at €1,299. Although the pricing is a little steep, almost close to the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, the Leica brand value and camera innovation should help justify the price tag. The Watch S1 Pro starts at €299, the Buds 4 Pro will be available for €249 and the Electric Scooter 4 Ultra has a €999 price tag.

Nokia G22: A durable and sustainable smartphone

Nokia HMD, which usually positions its smartphones around durability and longevity, announced a global partnership with iFixit to focus on the repairability of devices, particularly the Nokia G22. This fits nicely with Nokia HMD’s efforts toward sustainability. All of Nokia’s new devices – G22, C22 and C32 – focus on improved imaging, durability and at the same time improved CMF (Color, Material and Finish).

Additionally, Nokia HMD has announced that these devices will be locally manufactured, making Nokia HMD one of the very few device OEMs looking to localize their European smartphone manufacturing. However, it will be easier said than done and Nokia will likely start with assembly initially. The new C and G Series are likely to help Nokia HMD gain share in some of the Western and Central Eastern European markets where the entry-tier segment has been hurt due to muted upgrades in the previous years.

Nokia has packed some firsts in the C Series. The C32 has the highest image quality in the C Series yet while the C22 promises a better build quality than its competitors. The G Series has solid specs as well, though Nokia HMD might need to pivot from the existing notch design as soon as possible while competing with pricing with its Chinese rivals like realme and Xiaomi in similar price segments.

Nokia unveils new logo and identity

Nokia has announced a major strategy shift that will see the company move into a new stage of its three-phase strategy announced in 2021, which was aimed at delivering sustainable and profitable growth. Nokia has announced that it is now moving away from the reset phase and working towards focusing on six key pillars of growth that aim to boost the company’s market share and consolidate its leadership in key business areas. They will also leverage Nokia’s brand for more product categories and launch new service-based business models.

We have already seen some of this strategy at work. During MWC 2022, Nokia launched software-as-a-service for CSPs and enterprises while also launching Network-as-a-service and iSIM secure connect as a SaaS. Nokia’s smartphone licensee, Nokia HMD has been talking about sustainability at the centre of their vision for some time now.

Lastly, Nokia also refreshed its visual identity to mark its shift in strategy by changing its iconic (and almost nostalgic) logo. Nostalgia could be one reason behind this decision because most consumers still remember the company for its early smartphone leadership, a perception which according to the company has been holding the brand back as it seeks to grow in the enterprise market and outpace competitors.

(Written with inputs from Tarun Pathak, Ankit Malhotra)
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Snapdragon Summit 2022 Day 1: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform with new AI experiences, real-time ray tracing, Wi-Fi 7 announced

Qualcomm unveiled the next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform at its annual Snapdragon Summit 2022 event on the beautiful Hawaiian island of Maui. The new and improved Qualcomm SoC aims to deliver smart and intelligent AI experiences across different domains – from performance to photography and connectivity. Below is our quick summary and analysis of Qualcomm’s Day 1 announcement.

AI takes centerstage with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

A big part of the keynote presentation focused on the new AI experiences that the mobile platform offers. It starts with the new Qualcomm AI Engine featuring the Hexagon Processor and the Sensing Hub. Previous iterations of application processors used different elements within the SoC to perform some AI computation, but the Hexagon Processor was the main AI driver. This could lead to a lack of processing capacity. With 8 Gen 2, Qualcomm is distributing AI processing capability throughout the SoC as well as making the Hexagon Processor more powerful and efficient. The net is substantial inference performance gains while improving power efficiency.

There are several firsts that Qualcomm is bringing to the Hexagon Processor –

A dedicated power delivery system.
The architecture features a new micro tile interfacing and a large tensor accelerator offering up to 4.35X performance improvement,
INT4 support on mobile with 60% per/watt performance improvements.

Qualcomm says the performance boost enables faster natural language processing, multiple language translations, and advanced AI-powered camera features. The new Integer 4 precision (INT4) will allow OEMs to shrink AI models while increasing AI inferencing speed by up to 90%.

Talking about the Sensing Hub, it now has 50% more memory and offers a 2X jump in AI performance. Together with a Dual AI processor, the Sensing Hub controls several AI functions that include:

Different sensors (ambient light, gyroscope, accelerometer, and more).
Voice/audio – like the wake word such as Alexa, Hey Google.
Connectivity – including Wi-Fi, GPS, and Mobile Data.
Always-sensing camera for gesture detection, face recognition, eye-detection, Iris Authentication, and more.

All this processing is happening on the device and is safeguarded with Snapdragon Secure. There are key features such as near-face detection to turn the screen on or off, depending on whether you are looking at it or not. When the sensor detects other persons in the vicinity, it will hide notifications, thus keeping your conversations and alerts secure. Lastly, there is also liveness detection for face authentication, which can tell the difference between a real face vs fake one, thus making your smartphone more secure. Qualcomm trusted execution environment does all the analysis before unlocking the device, and all camera data is protected within the environment.

5G AI processor, faster Wi-Fi 7 connectivity

Qualcomm is bringing an advanced 5G platform with improvements across 5G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The new SoC is powered by a Snapdragon X70 5G modem-RF system along with a 5G AI processor. This AI processor optimizes critical network parameters in real-time, such as channel state feedback, antenna tuning, mmWave beamforming, latency, and more, all this while saving battery life. The chipset includes support for dual-SIM, dual-active 5G+5G/4G support. It can offer peak download speeds up to 10Gbps, and peak upload speeds up to 3.5Gbps.

The Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 connectivity system also brings Wi-Fi 7, first to the mobile platform, with 2X peak download speeds up to 5.8Gbps, and latency under 2ms. Lastly, there is also dual Bluetooth technology offering 2X connection range while consuming 50% less power.

Snapdragon Sight: AI photography to capture beautiful memories

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC is fine-tuned to support new image sensors and deliver advanced photography experiences. Qualcomm is working closely with Samsung to optimize the ISOCELL HP3 200MP image sensor for the Snapdragon platform. It will enable users to click photos with rich details, in full 200MP resolution, 50MP binned, and 12.5MP binned images in low light. But that’s not all, Qualcomm is also working with Sony to develop quad digital overlap HDR technology for video recording and bringing optimized support for the newer sensors. The 8 Gen 2 is also the first Snapdragon chipset to include AV1 codec and 8K HDR video playback support for up to 60fps.

The biggest highlight of Snapdragon Sight is the Cognitive ISP which brings real-time semantic segmentation for enhanced photography and videography experience. The AI story continues here too, where the neural network is contextually aware of faces, people, grass, trees, clothing, and accessories. It will apply AI photo editing in real time while capturing photos and videos. For instance, if you are wearing shades or glasses, it can detect them, and remove the reflection. The AI can boost the colors of the sky, flowers, and much more.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2: Key specifications

The new SoC is built by TSMC on its 4nm process node. Qualcomm says the new Kryo CPU is 35% faster and up to 40% more power efficient. It still comes with an eight-core tri-cluster CPU, but there is a slight change this time around. Instead of one-three-four, you now have a one-four-three configuration. Basically, Qualcomm has added an extra performance core and reduced one efficiency core.

In a nutshell, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 comes with:

One Cortex-X3 prime core clocked at 3.2GHz.
Two Cortex-A715 & two Cortex-A710 performance cores clocked at 2.8GHz (two microarchitectures to support 64-bit and legacy 32-bit apps).
Three Cortex-A510 efficiency cores clocked at 2.0GHz.

On the graphics side, with the new Adreno GPU Qualcomm claims to offer a 25% boost in performance and 45% better power efficiency. There is also support for Vulkan 1.3 with up to a 30% performance boost. The GPU also supports HDR Vivid (which is China’s HDR standard) for producing richer colors and image details. Lastly, there is also something new called OLED aging compensation which could help solve the screen burn-in issue, especially now that most of us spend more time on our devices consuming different types of content.

On the gaming side, Qualcomm has been improving the Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, and the latest addition is real-time hardware-accelerated ray tracing. The company says this helps in delivering life-like reflections, lights, and illuminations when playing mobile games, thus elevating the overall experience. There is also a partnership with Unreal for mobile-optimized support to offer detailed, photorealistic human characters in games. Snapdragon Ray Tracing features will be available on smartphones from OEMs like vivo, HONOR, OPPO, ASUS, and others. Qualcomm has also partnered with game developers such as Tencent and NetEase Games among others to enable these features.

Snapdragon Sound with Spatial Audio and head tracking

The personal audio space is growing, and the popularity of TWS is on a rise as content consumption increases. With the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Qualcomm is adding support for spatial audio with dynamic head-tracking to enable a premium and immersive surround-sound listening experience. You will now be able to stream music in 48kHz lossless format, even on the new Bluetooth LE standard. And for gamers, the latency has been reduced to around 48ms.

OEM partners & expected timeline

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform has secured design wins from several global OEMs, including ASUS, HONOR, Motorola, OnePlus, and OPPO. Even nubia and sub-brand REDMAGIC, Xiaomi and sub-brand Redmi, vivo sub-brand iQOO have committed to using the flagship Snapdragon chipset in their devices. During the Q4 earnings call, Qualcomm also confirmed that the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 series will go all-in with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. Clearly, there’s a lot to look forward to, and the first commercial devices powered by the latest mobile platform are expected by the end of 2022.

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Insights Tag： Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

MWC 2023 Day 2: TECNO Phantom V Fold, realme GT3 240W, CloudSIM™ and More

TECNO joins the foldable revolution

realme GT3 240W brings the fastest charging tech to smartphones

Oasis Smart-SIM demonstrates new CloudSIM™ solution

Nothing Phone (2) to be powered by Qualcomm flagship SoC