Thursday, December 05, 2019

Snapdragon 865 & 765 Imaging Capabilities

Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 865 mobile platform with upgraded camera features:

"Gigapixel Speed ISP: The Snapdragon 865’s ISP operates at staggering speeds of up to 2 gigapixels per second and provides brand-new camera features and capabilities. You can capture in 4K HDR with over a billion shades of color, capture 8K video, or snap massive 200-megapixel photos [Old Snapdragon 845 announced in 2017, as well as the newer 855 and 855+ platforms already supported 192MP]. You can also take advantage of the gigapixel speeds to slow things down and capture every millisecond of detail with unlimited high-definition slow-motion video capture at 960 fps. And now, for the first time ever on a mobile platform, Dolby Vision for video capture creates brilliant HDR footage that’s primed and ready for the big screen. In tandem with the 5th generation Qualcomm AI Engine, the gigapixel speed ISP can quickly and intelligently identify different backgrounds, people, and objects, so they can be treated individually for a truly customized photo."




Qualcomm also announces a mid-range Snapdragon 765 platform with somewhat weaker but still impressive camera support:

3 comments:

  1. "brand-new camera features and capabilities"
    OK, let's take a look at this marketing doublespeak.

    "You can capture in 4K HDR with over a billion shades of color"
    How is this any different than a 10bit sensor? Wow, a billion shades of color, not a new feature nor a new capability.

    "capture 8K video"
    Not really new either.

    "snap massive 200-megapixel photos [Old Snapdragon 845 announced in 2017, as well as the newer 855 and 855+ platforms already supported 192MP]."
    192 -> 200 is a 4% improvement, nothing to write home about.

    "capture every millisecond of detail with unlimited high-definition slow-motion video capture at 960 fps"
    UNLIMITED high-definition slow-motion video capture. WOW... unlimited. Wait, what's unlimited here?

    Seems like a recycle year.

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  2. You're absolutely right. The configuration of the new Snapdragon865 SoC's CPU is exactly the same, with even clock speeds staying completely unchanged between the 855 and 865. 
    Most likely there is a slight improvement in the GPU. The improvement is solely due to ARM's next generation of performance cores, and not due to any improvement or even change in architecture.

    The Prime, Performance and Efficiency cores remain excatly the same. In many ways Snapdragon is abusing its market dominance to sell a core with almost no improvements, except a minor GPU and it's own 5G modem.

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  3. That being said, I'd love for actual camera companies to match 10-bit 4k60p capabilities and the like. As small of a bump this is, it still pulls phones shockingly far ahead of the curve.

    Also, I don't think Apple or Android provide actual ways to make use of all of the processing power of the arm cores. Mobile video editing? Running Geekbench until it overheats? The shameful state of smartphone reviews mean that manufacturers may be penalized if the choose the 855, because the number didn't go up. See the LG g6 when it used the 821 instead of 835.

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