Android flagships to close performance gap to iPhone 13 with ANOTHER big 2022 upgrade

Android flagships could be using Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus chip in late 2022 with performance boosts over vanilla version.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus is expected to offer better thermal performance than Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phones. (Representational Image) (Amritanshu / HT Tech)

Android flagships in 2022 have largely relied on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip and so far, we have been satisfied with the performance on offer. The Samsung Galaxy S22 series, iQOO 9 Pro and Oppo Find X5 Pro have shown tremendous performance capabilities in our reviews. However, these chips are said to suffer in terms of thermal performance and hence, there were plans to come up with an updated version. A Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus version is now rumoured to be announced soon and it could solve the thermal throttling issue reported on most of the 2022 high-end Android devices.

Based on information from Onsitego and tipster Yogesh Brar, Qualcomm is planning to announce the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus chip in May 2022, along with a couple of new Snapdragon 700 series chips. The Plus variant will be still be based on the 4nm fabrication process but it will manufactured by TSMC instead of Samsung. Hence, the Plus variant from TSMC is expected to offer better thermal performance and lesser throttling.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus variant coming soon

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus is expected to be first found on high-end smartphones from Lenovo, Motorola, OnePlus, and Xiaomi later this year. Rumours suggest that Samsung could also use the Plus variant of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 on its next-gen Galaxy Z foldable phones.

The updated variant of Qualcomm's flagship chip comes at a time when MediaTek offers its equally powerful and less pricey Dimensity 9000 series chip and Dimensity 8100 chip. Oppo has already offered its Find X5 Pro in both Snapdragon and MediaTek variants this year, and going forward, we can expect more of such options from other brands.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus should also bridge the gap to Apple's A15 Bionic chip, which is by now half a year old and is based on the last-gen 5nm fabrication process. That said, over the next few months, Apple is expected to launch its A16 Bionic chip that should be based on the 4nm process.

All this while, we could be seeing more Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phones coming to the Indian market over the coming months. Realme has already announced its flagship Realme GT 2 Pro for an April launch, while Xiaomi's flagship Xiaomi 12 series is also rumoured to launch soon after. The OnePlus 10 Pro is also launching in a few weeks using the same chip.