Qualcomm launches ‘Snapdragon Sound’ to boost wireless audio quality

After announcing a project aimed to bring advanced haptics like iOS to Android last week, Qualcomm has now launced a new initiative called “Snapdragon Sound”, aimed to bring Apple and Samsung like experience to wireless sound quality of phones, headphones and gaming headsets by making use of its mobile and audio technologies to solve the dropout, latency and connection issues.

Now to achieve this goal, Qualcomm is going is to take help of it’s latest processors, Bluetooth audio SoCs, active noise cancellation, super wideband voices and codecs like aptX Adaptive to achieve playback of hi-fi music up to 24-bit 96kHz and to capture frequencies up to 16 KHz and a sampling rate of 32 KHz. Along with this it will focus on Bluetooth latencies as low as 89 milliseconds so that while playing games and listening to music, you won’t receive dropouts and glitches even in busiest wireless signal environments, such as trains, subways, and shopping malls.

Qualcomm claims that “Snapdragon Sound optimized devices will be tested for interoperability in Qualcomm Technologies’ dedicated test facility on measures of performance including audio quality, latency, and robust connectivity.”

First product with Snapdragon Sound certification are expected to arrive next month, from its first two partners Xiaomi and Audio-Technica. On the downside, the existing devices from brands like Sennheiser, Audio-Technica, Anker, Bose, and Jabra will not be updated to this experience says the company.

Qualcomm will be promoting its Snapdragon Sound experience through Amazon Music, which supports lossless streaming since 2019, followed by Tidal, Spotify and other music services, which are expected to offer loosless and HD streaming option soon. And if everything goes as planned Qualcomm will soon offer Snapdragon Sound certification to other additional devices like PCs, laptops, smartwatches and augmented reality glasses.