Qualcomm Inc. launched its new top-tier smartphone chip aimed at premium-priced Android phones. The chip involves features like sharper photos and graphics than handsets using chips from rivals. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip will have similar computing cores to rivals like MediaTek Inc., which recently announced a chip aimed at premium phones, Reuters reports. Almost every other part of the chip is custom designed by Qualcomm, including those playing a role in the visual quality of photos and graphics-intensive apps like games. Qualcomm has been crafting software that will let handset makers tap deeper into those parts of the chip. Qualcomm said that over a dozen phone makers, including Xiaomi Corp., Sony Group Corp., and Honor, the brand spun out of Huawei Technologies Group Ltd., have signed up to use the new chips. The phones featuring the chips will be on the market before 2021 end. Price Action QCOM …