Qualcomm confirms Snapdragon 8 Gen1 name

Ahead of its Snapdragon Tech Summit on November 30, today Qualcomm has announced some changes to its branding strategy for mobile SoCs (which it calls “platforms”), and also the fact that there are now over 2 billion Snapdragon devices in use across the globe.

Qualcomm has confirmed recent rumors, saying that it will switch to a new naming scheme for its mobile platforms. The names will entail “a single-digit series and generation number”, starting with the newest flagship Snapdragon 8-series platform. So without saying it outright, Qualcomm is confirming that it won’t be Snapdragon 898 or anything like that – it will be Snapdragon 8 Gen1. And then, in 2022, its successor will be Snapdragon 8 Gen2, and so on and so forth.

It will be interesting to see what this will mean for lower-tier chips, because the Snapdragon 7, 6, and 4 families have all had multiple members available in parallel. But the company is staying mum on all that for now.

Next up, the name Qualcomm will show up much less in mobile-related product names. Effectively, the company says it’s separated the Qualcomm and Snapdragon brands, and going forward, Snapdragon will be a standalone product brand “with specific ties to the Qualcomm brand where appropriate”.

Thankfully, the suffix “5G” will be removed from mobile platform names going forward, as 5G has now become ubiquitous enough not to warrant that anymore. Qualcomm is also committed to only launching 5G-capable mobile platforms from this point on, so there’s no need to point out the obvious.

Changes are also coming to the iconic Snapdragon “fireball”, which will “gain new prominence and manifest itself in new visual assets and other creative executions”. New representative colors are being introduced too, including Midnight, Gunmetal, Nickel, Snapdragon Red, and Gold. Gold will now be used to represent only premium-tier products.

According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen1 will officially be unveiled at the Snapdragon Tech Summit on November 30. GSMArena