Qualcomm is debuting Snapdragon Sound, a new technology that’s designed to enable seamless, immersive audio across mobile devices and wireless audio accessories. With Snapdragon Sound, audio passes through a series of system-level enhancements and refinements so that the highest quality sound is produced.
Current wireless audio devices on the market suffer from common pain points including poor sound quality, audio or video falling out of sync, complicated pairing, short battery life, and poor connectivity. Snapdragon Sound aims to address those pain-points by working with Qualcomm processors to address these issues and provide low latency, high-quality audio through easy-to-pair devices with sufficient battery life.
Snapdragon Sound supports high-resolution 24-bit 96kHz audio and Bluetooth latencies as low as 89 milliseconds. For comparison, today’s leading devices have a latency of 142 milliseconds. Additionally, with more frequency bands supported, audio comes out sounding clearer and more detailed than ever before, which works great for high-resolution streaming services like Spotify HiFi. For on-board audio, Qualcomm also equips Snapdragon Sound with Qualcomm Aqstic DAC for support of up to 348kHz 32-bit PCM.
Snapdragon Sound carries a handful of other technologies to help improve the user’s overall experience. Some of these include Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 for hassle-free pairing, Qualcomm Active Noise Cancelling technology, Qualcomm aptX Voice super wideband voice, and more.
Xiaomi has already expressed its interest in Snapdragon Sound and has announced that it will be one of the first mobile manufacturers to bring this new technology to consumers. Popular audio brand Audio-Technica will also be offering devices powered by Snapdragon Sound alongside Xiaomi.
Smartphones and peripheral devices carrying Snapdragon Sound are expected to be available later this year.