CONSUMERS may no longer need to pay top dollar for premium level camera and gaming on their next smartphone.
Tech giant Qualcomm has unveiled brand new tech to turbocharge upcoming budget devices with the latest AI features normally reserved for expensive handsets.
The company’s top tier chip is currently in mobiles like the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra which tend to have a higher price tag.
So Qualcomm has devised a new version – called Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 – to bring some premium-level features to the cheaper end of the market.
It’s expected to appear on future handset from the likes of Honor, iQOO, realme, Redmi and Xiaomi in the coming months.
So if you’re thinking of buying an expensive new smartphone for all the new AI features you might want to hold off a little longer.
We’ve already seen how Snapdragon – which is Manchester United’s new front-of-shirt sponsor from the start of 2024/25 season – has spearheaded the arrival of huge new AI tools.
These include advanced photography features like the ability to magically extend a photo you’ve already taken beyond what the lens can see.
Many of these tricks are done on-device.
This means you don’t need to be online and none of your data needs to go off to the cloud, so things like AI voice assistants are a lot more secure.
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Qualcomm claims its new chip provides a boost to audio capabilities with lossless high-definition sound, as well as hyper-realistic mobile gaming.
With new devices set to launch in a matter of months with the new chip on board, we won’t have to wait too long to find out whether the upgrade delivers.
“We’re elated to introduce the latest addition to our premium Snapdragon 8-series, our most premium mobile offering, bringing a host of exceptional specially selected capabilities to more consumers,” said Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets at Qualcomm Technologies.
The announcements comes just a few weeks after Qualcomm revealed a mega Wi-Fi connectivity upgrade and faster 5G for upcoming smartphones.
A new system known as X80 5G Modem-RF uses AI to improve 5G speeds.
But that’s not all as Qualcomm claims it’ll ease your phone from other common problems, such as quality of service and coverage.
When can we expect 6G?
There is already talk about when 5G’s successor, 6G, will launch.
5G only landed in the UK in 2019 and it’s still not available everywhere.
And separately, 3G has just started being switched off in the UK this year.
John Smee, SVP Engineering at Qualcomm, explains that 6G is still a way off yet but research is very much underway.
“So 5G itself started in 2019/2020, so it’s going to take us through to 2030,” he told The Sun.
“The reason these Gs happen every ten years or so is there’s a huge amount of cumulative research that gets embedded and incorporated into that next generation.”
For now, we don’t know exactly what to expect from 6G except it’ll undoubtedly be faster for much bigger data-hungry products like cars, as well as performing a lot smoother.
Cellular networks are evolutionary – you don’t really rip out 4G to put in 5G, instead kit is gradually upgraded.
At the moment, 5G is being boosted to something called 5G Advanced, which has far greater capacity and coverage.
