News

Qualcomm Unveils Latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Processor

The new chip features hardware ray tracing, powerful AI capability, Wi-Fi 7, and a ton of raw power.

Published

4 years ago

November 17, 2022

qualcomm unveils latest snapdragon 8 gen 2 processor

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Tech Summit (held simultaneously in China and Hawaii) has kicked off in style this year, with the announcement of the company’s latest system-on-chip (SoC) smartphone processors. The newest line of chips is known as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and will deliver significant improvements in performance and efficiency, as well as being what Qualcomm describes as “purpose-built for AI.”

The new chip boasts a 4.35x improvement in performance and a staggering 60% boost to its power-per-watt efficiency. Snapdragon 8 gen 2 will also feature dedicated AI processing in the modem portion of the chip, improving throughput and range, and supporting 10Gbps speeds.

Graphics (GPU) performance will also receive a considerable spec bump, with the new chip featuring an improved Adreno GPU with hardware ray tracing that only draws a measly 5w of power. According to Qualcomm, the updated GPU also supports “Vulkan 1.3, HDR Vivid, Adaptive HDR, OLED aging compensation, and Unreal Engine 5 MetaHumans, with a 25% increase in performance and power efficiency.”

Other upgrades to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 include Wi-Fi 7 connectivity, dual Bluetooth, a new 3.2GHz Arm Cortex X3 high-performance core, and support for dynamic spatial audio.

AI Processing Power

snapdragon 8 gen 2 ai performance

As well as a substantial overall boost to specs, Qualcomm is keen to show off Snapdragon 8’s AI engine, which features a dedicated power plane and double the power from the chip’s tensor processing cores. Thanks to a feature known as Hexagon Direct Link, fast, real-time AI processing will be possible, which will aid the chip when put to work on complex tasks such as text-to-speech, photography, and other power-hungry computational tasks.

Improved Sensor Hub

Finally, Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 8 chip will also use its updated AI smarts to enable real-time monitoring, allowing devices equipped with the processor to utilize the camera even while sleeping. This feature will allow QR codes to be scanned, and add the ability to actively monitor user activity, meaning notifications won’t appear to unauthorized viewers.

So when can we expect manufacturers to start using the new Snapdragon chip? Qualcomm has already partnered with the likes of OnePlus, Motorola, Sony, and Asus. That means we might see newly updated phones shipping by the end of the year — though if you’re a Samsung fan, you might have to wait until 2023 to see the processor in action in the Galaxy S23 series.

News

Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

Egypt’s telecom regulator says $57.6 billion moved through more than 57 million wallets in six months. And one operator handled 77% of the value.

Published

4 days ago

September 12, 2026

Nour Nasir

egypt's mobile wallets are booming but cash still has power

Egypt’s mobile wallets handled EGP 2.96 trillion ($57.6 billion) in transactions in the first half of 2026, according to the National Telecom Regulatory Authority – a 56% rise on the EGP 1.90 trillion ($36.9 billion) recorded a year earlier. Transactions grew faster still, up 62% to 2.22 billion, while registered wallets climbed 23% to 57.01 million.

On one reading, that is exactly what Egypt’s regulators have been pushing for: a payments system that runs through telecom-linked wallets rather than banknotes. But the same data shows how far cash still reaches into it. Cash withdrawals made up just 12% of the transactions taking money out of wallets, yet 75% of the value withdrawn or spent.

Money arrives mostly from bank accounts: transfers through InstaPay accounted for 78% of deposit transactions and 58% of the value deposited, while incoming remittances from abroad made up 3% of deposit transactions but 10% of their value. Once inside, it largely moves between wallets – wallet-to-wallet transfers accounted for 54% of all transactions and 67% of total value, with mobile and internet top-ups a distant second at 25% of volume. In effect, the wallet is serving as a transfer layer: the place money passes through between the bank account and the banknote.

That layer also runs predominantly through one operator. Vodafone Cash held 53% of registered wallets and 57% of active ones, but handled 69% of transactions and 77% of their value. Its nearest rival, e& money, held 23% of registered wallets but 14% of transaction value; Orange Cash 20% and 8%; WE Pay 4% of wallets. How many of the 57.01 million are active is not stated.

Also Read: Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Adoption is rather uneven in other respects. Men held 38 million wallets, or 67% of the total, against 19 million held by women. Users aged 26 to 45 accounted for half of all wallets, and Cairo alone had 10.6 million, or 19% of the national total, with Giza next at 6.5 million.

The NTRA says it is continuing to work with telecom operators on the regulatory framework for wallet services, part of a wider effort to expand electronic payments and financial inclusion. Its own figures show that effort succeeding on the way in. On the way out, three-quarters of the value still leaves as cash.