Qualcomm on Thursday introduced its newest initiative, Snapdragon Sound. Designed to improve sound quality and battery life, it also promises lower latency and better Bluetooth connection.
Snapdragon Sound is a suite of optimizations and enhancements made at pretty much all levels of hardware and software, from end to end of the phone and earbuds connection. It’s not unlike what Apple has done for its own AirPods and iPhones via a custom Bluetooth chip.
Qualcomm says its Snapdragon Sound will offer listeners better audio quality (double the sampling rate) as compared to Apple for music and voice calls. Qualcomm promises 45% lower latency than Apple.
Devices must pass a series of quality, performance, and interoperability tests if they hope to bear the Snapdragon Sound branding. The first Snapdragon Sound devices should hit the market “before summer” and are expected to come from Xiaomi and Audio-Technica.
To coincide with its launch, Amazon Music and Qualcomm Technologies have announced a curated Snapdragon Sound Playlist.
