The Qualcomm Tech Summit is currently underway and the silicon specialist has kicked things off by introducing the latest offering its smartphone processors – the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1.

We’re still getting use to the naming convention of this new processor but, in familiar Qualcomm fashion, the company is touting it as one of its most advanced offerings to date, earmarking it for upcoming Android flagship phones.

To that end, Qualcomm says we could see a device sporting the Gen 1 8 before the end of the year, although which OEM will be featuring the silicon is unclear for now, especially as no notable launches immediately spring to mind between now and the end of the year.

While we await word on that front, looks like at what makes this silicon so advanced.

According to Qualcomm, “The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform is our most advanced 5G platform ever, with our Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System ushering in unprecedented speeds up to 10 Gbps while supporting all-day power and more locations than ever,” it explained in a press release about the newly unveiled processor.

Along with the 10 Gigabit 5G Modem-RF solution, which is said to be a world first, Qualcomm also notes that this processor supports more 5G bands than ever before, although we’re not sure whether it has HMD Global (Nokia Mobile) beat in that department.

Other notable features include a 7th Gen AI system that yields four times faster processing than the predecessor, along with a re-architected Qualcomm Adreno GPU that is 25 percent more efficient and delivers 30 percent faster graphics rendering.

Another world first is the camera support, which can now handle up to 8K HDR on-device video capture, as well as featuring Qualcomm’s first ever 18-bit ISP.

As mentioned there is already a handset powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 expected before year’s end, but expect the majority of 2022’s Android flagship phones to be running this new silicon, many of which should be showcased around MWC in late-February.