Category
🤖
TechTranscript
00:00Alright, there we go. Hey guys, I'm TomTheTechChap and I am wearing shorts, which I think is
00:05the first time I have on the channel, because I'm in Hawaii. It's a tough gig, but I partnered
00:10with Qualcomm and flew out here for their 2021 Snapdragon Summit. But tan lines and
00:16pina coladas to one side for a minute, I want to talk about some tech because Qualcomm have
00:20just unveiled a whole bunch of cool stuff. From this brand new chip, which will be powering
00:24most of next year's flagship phones, a whole new gaming handheld device, as well as
00:29next gen 5G laptops, proper lossless Bluetooth audio, and it's all powered by Snapdragon.
00:37Let's start with this guy, a brand new chip. This will be powering most of next year's
00:43flagship phones. Well, this won't, it's a piece of plastic, but inside we have this
00:47little illustrative system on a chip. It's the all new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. And for now,
00:54Qualcomm have been showing it off in this reference design phone, so not one you can
00:57actually buy, but this is their latest flagship chip. So moving on from last year's 888 and
01:03888 plus, they've changed up the naming scheme a little bit. So now we have the Snapdragon
01:078, which is the flagship tier, and this is the Gen 1 version of that. And it looks to
01:12be a pretty tasty upgrade with significant performance improvements, AI and camera upgrades,
01:18faster connectivity, and also new audio tech. And so in probably just a few weeks, we'll
01:23start seeing the first phones shipping with these new chips. And the headlines include
01:28up to 20% faster processor performance, 30% faster graphics, while also up to 25% power
01:34saving at the same time, so faster and hopefully better battery life. But that's nothing compared
01:40to the four times faster AI, which helps with everything from cameras, upscaling, noise
01:45cancelling, and also efficiency to get the best battery life. So some pretty big upgrades
01:49are coming to these next gen 2022 model of phones. But really, it's the camera where
01:54you can often see some of the biggest innovations. And that's because the image signal processor
01:59or ISP on the chip plays a massive part in how good your phone's camera is. So the new
02:04Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 packs in a all new 18 bit spectra ISP, which captures 3.2 gigapixels
02:12per second of data. And that's actually 19% faster than before on a Snapdragon 888. So
02:17we're getting more detail and better dynamic range. And you can even shoot in 18 bit raw.
02:22So while we've been here at the Snapdragon summit in Hawaii, Qualcomm used this reference
02:27phone and loaded up some camera demos to kind of show off some of the new features that
02:30we might see from upcoming phones. And one very cool new feature is the fact that this
02:36new ISP can actually capture images from three lenses simultaneously. Now we have had the
02:42ability to preview and switch between multiple lenses before, but not simultaneous capture.
02:47So potentially, you might not have to worry about what lens to use as you could get an
02:52ultra wide, a wide and a telephoto shot with just one press of the shutter button. Again,
02:56this is something that Snapdragon 8 technically supports, but it doesn't necessarily mean
03:01all Snapdragon 8 powered phones will eventually offer this. We'll have to see. Not only that,
03:06but this new ISP with what Qualcomm calls Snapdragon Sight can now capture 30 images
03:11in one snapshot. And these are then combined for a higher quality, better dynamic range
03:16photo. And this could significantly improve low light night mode shots, and we should
03:20get reduced blur as well as the camera can track every pixel in the frame now.
03:24I also got to play with this new 140 degree live panoramic view mode. So no more carefully
03:31turning on the spot only to have something ruin the photo as you make a panorama. And
03:35there's no distortion even on the edges and no waiting for photos to be stitched together.
03:39This might actually make me take panorama shots again. Another demo showed off a new
03:43motion blur mode, which takes a bunch of photos over a few seconds and then combines them
03:48and then gives you quite a cool blur effect on a moving subject like this waterfall. Again,
03:52this is all pre-release software on non-retail phones, but hopefully it gives you an idea
03:56of what you can do with it.
03:58Switching to video and we now get support for 8K HDR video, including HDR 10 plus at
04:05And you can take 64 megapixel photos at the same time while recording. Qualcomm also showed
04:11off this real time video motion blur, and this actually uses AI face detection, which
04:15means we only get that bokeh effect when it detects a person. We have seen similar tech
04:20on other devices before, but now it'll be available on even more phones.
04:27So there's a whole bunch of upgrades with a new chip, but one area that I don't think
04:30we really talk about enough is sound and Snapdragon sound, which is this whole ecosystem
04:35around giving the best audio for your music, for your games, especially when you're using
04:39wireless earphones like this. They've had some pretty big announcements as well. And
04:44the headline is that the new chip with Snapdragon sound supports for the very first time, lossless
04:49CD audio over Bluetooth, which for audiophiles is actually a really big deal. This is an
04:55industry first. When eventually we have phones and headphones that support this in a few
04:59months, you'll be able to stream music over Bluetooth without any loss in quality. And
05:04really, that's just the cherry on top of Snapdragon sound, which also gives us ultra low latency
05:09audio, which is particularly useful in games when you've got your wireless earphones in
05:12so you get that instant audible feedback, plus some really handy AI noise cancelling
05:17for calls and a whole lot more. So far, so good then, but I think I'm most
05:21excited about this. It's an all new handheld gaming platform powered by the Snapdragon
05:27G3X chip. Now this is just a dev kit made by Razer, and we'll see final retail devices
05:33coming in 2022. But it's designed to be the place to play all of your games, whether it's
05:38mobile from the Play Store, or full fat proper games streamed from the cloud with something
05:42like Xbox Game Pass, or your console or your PC. Now my good friend Enabong from Bored
05:48at Work is my go to expert on mobile gaming. And he came away really impressed with both
05:53how smooth the frame rate was when playing games natively on the device and also streamed
05:57over Wi-Fi and 5G, and also the battery life. So front and center is this big 6.65 inch
06:04120 hertz HDR OLED screen, which looks absolutely stunning. And with this 20 by 9 aspect ratio,
06:11it's a pretty big handheld. So you've got your physical controls and the touchscreen
06:16has been mapped to these controls so you can play mobile games with more precision. We
06:20also get advanced cooling, haptic feedback, two front facing speakers built in with support
06:25for Snapdragon sound. There's also a 1080p webcam up front if you want to do some streaming,
06:30and you can dock it with your TV or monitor via the USB-C which supports DisplayPort.
06:35And then you can game in up to full 4K 144 hertz HDR. So it's all powered by the new
06:40Snapdragon G3X Gen 1 platform. And as well as that, we also have a healthy 6000 mAh battery.
06:47We get the latest Wi-Fi 6E as well as 5G built in for streaming on the go. And also
06:53very importantly, the drivers for the graphics can be regularly updated. So we'll keep getting
06:57optimizations for games over time. Now this is just an example device. So we'll have to
07:01see what the exact specs, performance and of course price will be when retail devices
07:06start coming out later in 2022. But it is a really interesting alternative to a Switch
07:11or a Steam Deck and I can't wait to spend more time with it.
07:14It's essentially a whole new platform for gaming and we don't see that very often.
07:19And finally, Qualcomm unveiled the all new 8CX Gen 3 processor for thin and light laptops.
07:25These chips are an alternative to your traditional x86 based Intel and AMD chips. Plus it's the
07:31first chip for Windows built on a smaller 5nm process and promises up to 85% better
07:37processor performance and 60% faster graphics compared to last year's 8CX Gen 2. Plus Qualcomm
07:44says we'll be getting the same multi-day battery life, 5G and Wi-Fi 6E support, plus
07:49a whole bunch of AI improvements and a new camera ISP. It's important to take this seriously,
07:54you know.
07:55And breathe. That was a lot of tech news. But let me know what you're most excited for
07:59in the comments below. I think for me, I just can't wait to get my hands on a proper next
08:03gen phone powered by the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. And also hopefully it won't be too long
08:07until I can properly test that new lossless Bluetooth streaming at home in the studio
08:11where I can really put it to the test.
08:13Thank you so much for watching guys. Don't forget to hit that like and subscribe button
08:16if you enjoyed the video and I promise I won't make any more videos in shorts. No one wants
08:21to see that. And I'll see you next time right here on the Tech Chap.