Qualcomm working on AV1 codec support for its future Snapdragon SoCs: Report

Its mobile rivals Samsung and MediaTek have it. And other tech companies like Nvidia and Netflix have it. And now Qualcomm is also getting on the AV1 bandwagon as per a recent report. According to Protocol, the mobile chipmaker is “planning to add support for AV1 to its upcoming flagship Snapdragon mobile processor”. The report also adds that 2023 would be the “year AV1 finally sees broader adoption”.

Snapdragon AV1 support: Here’s what you need to know

Qualcomm is said to introduce AV1 codec support with a future Snapdragon processor codenamed ‘SM8550’. Now, the current Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 carries a code name ‘SM8450’ while the supposedly next-in-line Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+ with ‘SM8475’ model name is rumoured to be in the works. That pattern of nomenclature would suggest the one with ‘SM8550’ could be Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, that’s likely to release in 2023. 

More specifically, it would be Snapdragon’s Adreno GPU that supports this native AV1 feature. 

Needless to say, things might change subject to market conditions and other factors.

Now what’s somewhat reassuring is that earlier this year, in an interview with Anandtech, Qualcomm’s SVP Alex Katouzian said, “we haven't been able to accommodate AV1. We'll probably accommodate in the future, but up until now, we just haven't been able to do it. It’s not that we don't want to do it - we just haven't had the ability to plan it in in time to try to make that happen.”

AV1 (AOMedia Video Codec 1.0) is an open-source royalty-free video codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media, which consists of big tech companies like Meta, Amazon, Netflix, Google,  Microsoft, and Intel among its founding members. AV1 vaunts better efficiency in video decoding, i.e., faster video playback and streaming with improved visual quality at bit rates about 50% less than H.264 (HEVC). 

So, although Qualcomm is taking its sweet time adopting this AV1 codec, when it does arrive, a large share of the Android phone market will reap its potential benefits. And we will be looking forward to this.

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