Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 8c and 7c for Always On, Always Connected PCs

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Last year, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8cx 5G platform, the world’s first 7nm SoC for laptops, in an attempt to capture the growing market of hybrid, thin-and-light always-connected personal computers (ACPCs).

This was the latest in a series of Qualcomm chips for ACPC as the company had previously tested the waters with the Snapdragon 850 and Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC platforms. While we saw Snapdragon 835-powered Windows 10 ACPCs as early as 2018, the Snapdragon 850 was even better tailored for Windows on ARM, which was brought about by concerted effort from Microsoft and Qualcomm. Now, at this year’s Snapdragon Tech Summit, the ACPC chipset portfolio is expanding with the announcement of the new Snapdragon 8c and Snapdragon 7c mobile PC platforms.

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These mobile processors allow hybrid and thin-and-light laptops to make use of the integrated modem in Snapdragon chips, and also take advantage of the higher power-efficiency for extended battery life. Those looking for ACPC devices usually prioritize mobility and battery life, thus these efficient Qualcomm chipsets with LTE connectivity are a great fit for on-the-go devices.

While ACPC use cases do not require a ton of performance, last year’s Snapdragon 8cx brought about a higher power budget and even better efficiency point for impressive results. The 8cx was essentially a larger Snapdragon 855, featuring the same 8th generation Kryo 495 cores in a 4+4 configuration as well as the Adreno 680 GPU.

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However, it also came with improvements tailored to the form factor, such as double the memory width through a 128-bit wide interface, capable of up to 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and more PCIe connections. This new premium computing tier was not meant to replace the Snapdragon 850, but rather coexist with it by giving OEMs more options when picking the right processor for their ACPC.

This new effort by Qualcomm has seen marked success, even subtly making headlines through the Surface Pro X and its Microsoft SQ1 chip, a Snapdragon 8cx derivative with an upgraded Adreno 685 GPU. This is where the Snapdragon 8c and Snapdragon 7c come into play: While 855-based designs have already made their mark in the premium segment through devices like the Surface Pro X (Microsoft SQ1) and the Galaxy Book S (running the 8cx), the Snapdragon 850 chips are due for an update. Thus, Qualcomm has introduced the high-end Snapdragon 8c, which it directly compares with the Snapdragon 850, and the Snapdragon 7c aimed at entry-level devices.

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The Snapdragon 8c succeeds the Snapdragon 850, similarly to the 8cx at the time, with a CPU performance boost of up to 30%. Just like the preceding 8cx, the Snapdragon 8c is built on a 7nm manufacturing process. We can’t directly contrast this figure with the gains the 8cx promised over the 850 given that, at the time, Qualcomm had not offered us a percentage improvement figure.

Though, expect the 8cx to remain the better-performing solution. It also promises up to 6 TOPS through its updated Qualcomm AI Engine, combining performance gains in CPU, GPU, and DSP. Finally, its integrated Snapdragon X24 LTE modem enables multi-gigabit connectivity with Cat. 20 downlink for download speeds of up to 2Gbps and Cat. 13 uplink for upload speeds of up to 316Mbps.

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The Snapdragon 7c is arguably an even more interesting portfolio addition given it’s aimed at more affordable ACPCs. Its octa-core Kryo 468 CPU cores promise a 25% boost in system performance over competing platforms in the same segment, and up to twice the battery life in day-to-day usage.

It also offers the Snapdragon X15 LTE modem for fast connectivity, with LTE download and upload speeds of 800Mbps and 150Mbps, respectively. It features an Adreno 618 GPU as well, putting ahead of the Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC platform but behind the Snapdragon 850. Finally, it promises up to 5 TOPS through its Qualcomm AI engine, putting the CPU, GPU, and DSP gains to good use in AI-accelerated Windows 10 experiences.

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Notably absent from these chipsets is 5G connectivity, though this may not be too surprising considering that the 8cx already fulfills that role for the few premium-tier devices aiming for that functionality (855-based ACPCs like the Surface Pro X and Galaxy Book S skipped 5G anyway).

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