Qualcomm Will Adopt AV1 In New Chipsets Released This Year

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is SM8450. (photo: Doc. Qualcomm)

JAKARTA - Qualcomm is reportedly planning to add video support with AV1 decoding in future Snapdragon chips, which are claimed to be Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

AV1 is a next-generation video codec developed by the Alliance for open Media, with advanced technology and a royalty-free model, making it less expensive for device manufacturers, video platforms, and (hopefully) end users.

AV1 is a way of saving video that offers better compression than today's standards, and of course means that the video can be sent over the internet much faster.

As with most video codecs, the video player saves up to 30% battery life than today's standard codec, HEVC (H.265), relies on hardware encoding support, which is not yet very common with AV1.

Thankfully, that could soon change thanks to Qualcomm's adoption of these new chips, with improved video codec support being one big improvement.

While the company hasn't confirmed if it's a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Protocol reports that the chip has the internal codename SM8550, which is in line with the model numbers of other Snapdragon 8-series chipsets.

Like Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 was SM8450, last year's Snapdragon 888 was SM8350, and so on. Protocol also says that the chip is expected to be released as early as later this year, which is in line with Qualcomm's rollout cycle for high-end mobile chips.

With the adoption of AV1, it means that Android devices in 2023 should be able to stream higher resolution videos more quickly.

One of AV1's biggest proponents is Google, and it's widely used on YouTube. AV1 has also been adopted by Netflix, although for now other major streaming platforms including Disney Plus and HBO Max have not made the switch to AV1.