Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Might Come in Two Variants: Is Qualcomm Copying Apple?

Qualcomm is likely to introduce the next-generation flagship mobile solution -- the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 probably in November at its annual Snapdragon Summit. It is now suggested that the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 might come in two flavors.

According to the leakster Digital Chat Station, the high-end variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is expected to offer a higher CPU clock speed of 3.4 to 3.5GHz, and this very processor might also come with a slightly more powerful GPU with a higher clock speed and memory bandwidth.

The baseline variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is likely to be similar to the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, which is currently the flagship offering from the company. With this, Android OEMs will be able to feature the high-end variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 on their ultra and pro variant flagship, while the standard SKU will be featured on the baseline flagship models.

Take an example of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S23 series. Models like the Galaxy S23 and the Galaxy S23 Plus are likely to use the standard Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. Similarly, the more premium Galaxy S23 Ultra is likely to use the powerful variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC.

Source  

Inspired By Apple?

A15 Bionic, the 2021 flagship mobile chip from Apple comes not in two but three variants. The iPad mini is based on the baseline A15 Bionic, while the iPhone 13 used the mid-tier SKU, and lastly, the iPhone 13 Pro and the iPhone 14 make use of the high-end A15 Bionic with an extra GPU core.

Qualcomm is also not new in creating multiple SKUs of the same processor. In fact, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is a speed binned variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Starting this year, the company is likely to announce the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 2 at the same time, to give more options to the smartphone brands.

In terms of features and capabilities, the pro/ultra variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is expected to be around 10 percent faster than the vanilla variant. Both variants of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 are likely to be manufactured by TSMC using either a 4nm or 3nm fabrication process.