After the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, which was developed for high-end smartphones and tablets known as the flagship, preparations for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 processor continue. Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in December in Hawaii.
The first information started to come from Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. According to Protocol’s information from industry sources, Qualcomm will add support for the AV1 (AOMedia Video 1) video codec to the processor. Netflix and Google show great interest in AV1, an open source and royalty-free video coding format developed by the Alliance.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 comes with AV1 codec support
Unnamed sources shared the information that “The upcoming flagship Snapdragon mobile processor will have AV1 video codec support.” They did not mention the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 name in person. However, the mention of the processor with the codename SM8550 in the news indicates that it will be the continuation of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.
Snapdragon chipsets have had a certain standard in their model numbers for years. For example, Snapdragon 865, introduced in 2019, uses the model number SM8250; The flagship Snapdragon 888 of 2021 had the number SM8350. The new generation Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chipset came out with the model number SM8450.
SM8550, the successor of SM8450, will most likely be Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 according to Qualcomm’s new processor naming strategy. On the other hand, it is claimed that it will be called Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus. However, Qualcomm does not radically change the model number in such cases. For example, Snapdragon 888 was SM8350 while 888 Plus was SM8350-AC.
What will the AV1 codec do?
AV1 video codec is able to deliver higher image quality in a lower size compared to other codecs. It reduces bandwidth requirements for both users and content providers. This is the reason why major video platforms such as YouTube and Netflix are showing interest in AV1.
Netflix started offering video with the AV1 codec on PlayStation 4 Pro and some televisions from November. We also see it in YouTube videos, while Google Chrome has built-in AV1 decoding support. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the hardware support of the AV1 codec will increase further.
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