Leak: Motorola Frontier could have Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, 200MP camera

Motorola was technically the first manufacturer to launch the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, revealing the Moto Edge X30 late last year. It looks like the company intends to step things up even more later this year, thanks to a so-called Motorola Frontier smartphone.

The reliable TechnikNews outlet obtained documents showing that the Motorola Frontier is a “next-generation” device powered by the Qualcomm SM8475 processor. Motorola’s phone is also rumored to pack 8GB to 12GB of RAM, and a 6.67-inch FHD+ OLED panel at 144Hz.

The outlet didn’t clarify whether the SM8475 was the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, but Qualcomm’s full-year refreshes usually get the SM8x50 naming convention (e.g. SM8350 for Snapdragon 888 and SM8250 for Snapdragon 865). We’ve also heard rumors that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus is coming later this year and will be built on a TSMC process.

There’s no word on battery capacity, but it’s claimed that the Motorola Frontier will step things up with 125W wired charging and 50W wireless charging.

All the megapixels for Motorola

The upcoming phone is also tipped to arrive with notable camera specs on paper. More specifically, TechnikNews reports that the device will have a 200MP main camera (the Samsung HP1), a 50MP ultrawide camera (Samsung JN1), and a 12MP telephoto lens. The Frontier is also said to arrive with a 60MP selfie camera that uses Qualcomm’s always-on face detection (i.e. not recognition) functionality.

There’s more to great image quality than loads of megapixels (in fact, plenty of megapixels can be detrimental), so we hope Motorola focuses on improved image processing and hardware additions (e.g. OIS).

There are still some other unanswered questions about this smartphone, such as a launch timeline (speculation points to the chipset arriving in Q3), whether it has an IP rating, and the commitment to software updates. But it certainly looks like a flagship worth adding to your watchlist in 2022.