Qualcomm has finally announced its next flagship mobile chipset – the Snapdragon 8 gen 1.
That name might come as something of a surprise, as it breaks the convention Qualcomm has used for years. While rumours had suggested we’d see the 898 this year, the new naming scheme is supposedly meant to make things a little easier to understand.
There’s a lot going on with this chip, both in terms of the usual speed improvements and new features it’ll allow, and you can read all about those at the bottom of this article.
But what about the phones that’ll be powered by the new chipset? Let’s have a look at which devices have been confirmed to pack the chip, and which ones we think will be powered by it.
Motorola
Motorola announced its next Moto Edge will pack the Qualcomm chip during the Qualcomm Tech Summit, confirming it’ll arrive very soon on December 9.
However, it seems like this phone will purely be targeted at the Chinese market so don’t expect it to arrive in regions like the UK, Europe and USA. Hopefully we’ll see a different version arrive on these shores soon.
Realme
Realme is going to be making its first true flagship phone in 2022 and it has confirmed that it will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, We also know the name – Realme GT Pro 2.
Rumours point to a triple-camera system headlined by a pair of 50MP sensors. It could also have a 6.8-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, and a 5000mAh battery.
Unofficial renders suggest that the Realme GT 2 Pro also look very similar to the classic Nexus 6P.
Oppo
Oppo was another brand to quickly announce its next flagship would feature the latest Qualcomm innards.
“We are committed to bringing top-of-the-range 5G smartphones to consumers, such as the Find X3 series, so we are delighted about the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Mobile Platform”, said VP of Overseas Sales at Oppo, Scott Zhang.
“OPPO maintains a close relationship with Qualcomm Technologies, and we believe the new mobile platform will bring immense improvements and powerful performance to the next generation of flagship smartphones”.
Oppo announced nothing else about the device, though it would make sense for it to be the Find X4 series, likely headlined by the Oppo Find X4 Pro.
Previous rumours have suggested the upcoming Oppo flagship will feature a 6.7-inch QHD display with a 120Hz refresh rate and a triple camera, consisting of a 50-megapixel wide angle lens, a 50-megapixel ultra-wide angle lens and a 13-megapixel 2x telephoto lens.
The same leaks also say this phone will take advantage of 80W fast charging and pack 12GB of RAM.
Xiaomi
During Qualcomm’s Tech Summit, Lei Jun, Founder and CEO of Xiaomi, appeared via video to announce that the Xiaomi 12 would be the first phone to pack the new chip.
This is very much a typical Xiaomi move and we’ve seen the Chinese brand announce its upcoming flagship alongside the reveal of the Qualcomm chip many times before.
No other details were announced regarding the phone and we’re none the wiser as to when it’ll actually be released. Hopefully we won’t have to wait too long as we were big fans of the Xiaomi Mi 11.
OnePlus
We’d always expected the OnePlus 10 series – which will likely consist of the OnePlus 10 and OnePlus 10 Pro – to pack Qualcomm’s latest chips, and now that has been confirmed.
OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed the news via Chinese social network Weibo, stating (via Google Translate): “OnePlus’ next-generation new products will be the first to be equipped with a new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platforms!”
“Our software and hardware development resources are focused on the optimization of the Snapdragon flagship processor”, Lau added.
We’ve previously been very impressed with how OnePlus phones perform, so it’ll be interesting to see which specific Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 features OnePlus decide to utilise.
What about everyone else?
Samsung is heavily rumoured to be using the chip in multiple versions of its upcoming Galaxy S22 series which is expected to be announced and unveiled in the first couple of months of 2022. Whether Samsung uses this chip in all regions remains to be seen as we often see it use an Exynos chip in regions like the UK.
Other brands we expect to use the phone throughout 2022 include Google, Vivo, Poco and more.
