Qualcomm participated in the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin (IFA), Germany, today, and announced the launch of the entry-level 5G chipset Snapdragon 4 series to facilitate mobile phone manufacturers to launch low-priced 5G mobile phones for the consumer public. It is currently known that companies such as Xiaomi, Oppo and Motorola will adopt this chipset and are expected to launch corresponding 5G mobile phones next year:
▲Qualcomm officially launched the entry-level 5G chipset, boosting the popularity of 5G mobile phones (Image source）
Regarding 5G, although Taiwan has just launched it not long ago and various network service providers are vigorously promoting their services and rates, I believe many people have been paying attention to the news about 5G mobile phones for a long time. For 5G mobile phones, many people believe that they are paired with expensive rates and expensive mobile phones. Not to mention that whether the rate is expensive or not depends on the person, but whether a mobile phone is expensive depends largely on the component supply chain behind the mobile phone.
The reason why the price of 5G mobile phones is relatively high at this stage is that the chipsets used in 5G mobile phones on the market are not yet fully in place, and only the mid-to-high-end market demand is the main one. Now, with Qualcomm announcing the launch of the Snapdragon 4 series chipset equipped with 5G technology, the price of 5G mobile phones will definitely further lower the so-called entry barrier as more affordable mobile phones are launched.
Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 4 series chipsets supporting 5G and Snapdragon 8cx Gen2 chipsets for PCs
Qualcomm announced this new chipset at the recent IFA conference and also expressed its expectations and goals for the development of future wireless networks. It will not just be an unattainable network tool, but a product that everyone has the opportunity to own. In addition, with the release of mobile phone chipsets, Qualcomm also launched the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 chipset for PC computers. With a claimed TDP of just 7W, the chipset is expected to be faster and more power-efficient than existing Intel Core i5 processors. The performance per watt is 39% higher than the opponent:
▲Qualcomm updates PC chipset and launches Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G chip (Image source）
The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2, as you can tell from the name, is a derivative of the previous generation 8cx. This chipset pays more attention to power saving and Internet speed than performance. In terms of wireless network specifications, it claims to have WiFI 6 connection capabilities. The chipset is produced on a 7nm process and has 8 Kryo 495 CPU cores, and the Adreno GPU supports DirectX 12. However, the actual performance still depends on the performance of the actual product. After all, this chipset is destined to run the Windows 10 on ARM system, so the actual performance may depend on the degree of cooperation between Qualcomm and Microsoft, and the extent to which the Windows on ARM system optimizes the ARM processor.
Qualcomm is also very optimistic about the development potential of 5G devices, and predicts that more than 750 million 5G mobile phones will be shipped in 2022, and this number will reach the 1 billion mark by 2023. Compared with 4G, in addition to slowing down development, it is also facing the transition of generations. It will be difficult to challenge the 1 billion mobile phone shipments in the future.
Laptops currently equipped with Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 will include the Acer Spin 7 laptop produced by Acer. This notebook will be Acer’s first notebook product to support 5G. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 chipset can support screens with up to 4K resolution and can operate in dual-screen mode. The Acer Spin 7 laptop has a USB Type-C interface, which allows users to use this interface to connect an additional monitor. Perhaps after the product is launched, we will have the opportunity to see the strength of this small laptop in supporting external monitors:
▲The Acer Spin 7 laptop is known to be one of the first products to use the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 chip (Image source）
In addition, Qualcomm also launched the latest wireless headset Bluetooth audio SoC chip QCC514x at this conference. This is the first audio chip set to use Qualcomm Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) noise reduction technology. The purpose is to allow smaller wireless headsets to have a certain degree of noise reduction function. But in fact, it still depends on personal hearing experience to judge whether it is practical or not. According to the official statement, the chipset is expected to automatically determine environmental noise and automatically activate the corresponding noise reduction level. It can also adjust the sound performance according to different usage situations:
▲The sound chip QCC514x is expected to make the noise reduction function in headphones more intelligent (Image source）
Source:GSMArena、The Verge、Android Police
Source: KOCPC Chinese