Qualcomm announces latest Snapdragon 888 Plus Chipset
Qualcomm has just announced the new Snapdragon® 888 Plus 5G Mobile Platform, a follow-on to the flagship Snapdragon 888. This new chipset is expected to be available on commercial flagship devices as soon as third quarter of 2021.
Snapdragon 888 vs 888+
The Snapdragon 888+ does offer some slight improvements in performance but it will be barely noticeable for most day-to-day usage to say the least.
The key difference between the two chipsets is their single-core performance and AI Engine performance. Aside from that, the two chipsets are pretty much identical.
| Snapdragon 888 | Snapdragon 888+ |
|---|---|
| CPU Cores: 1 x 2.84GHz Cortex X1 3 x 2.42GHz Cortex A78 4 x 1.80GHz Cortex A55 | CPU Cores: 1 x 2.995GHz Cortex X1 3 x 2.42GHz Cortex A78 4 x 1.80GHz Cortex A55 |
| AI Engine: Hexagon 780 26 TOPS | AI Engine: Hexagon 780 32 TOPS (20% more TOPS than 888) |
In reality, the Snapdragon 888 does not need much further improvements as it existingly pushes the boundaries of mobile devices capabilities.
In fact, most would argue that no phone manufacturer has been able to fully tap on the Snapdragon 888’s processing power due to overheating issues.
Nevertheless, we can expect upcoming top of the line flagship phones to be powered by the Snapdragon 888+
What Phones will it Power?
Based on speculations by tomsguide, Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 could be among the first smartphones in the market to feature the Snapdragon 888+.
Qualcomm announced commercial devices featuring the new Snapdragon 888 Plus chip are expected to hit the market in the third quarter of 2021. Coincidentally, the Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3 are expected to be released in August 2021.
Separately, as announced, ASUS, Xiaomi, HONOR, Motorola, and Vivo are among the list of OEMs who have confirmed to launch a new flagship with the chipset.
Watch the Announcement
Snapdragon 888+ Features and Specifications
- Qualcomm® Adreno™ 660 GPU delivers gorgeous graphics rendering for immersive, vivid gaming
- Architecture based on Arm Cortex-X1 technology enables efficient processing for lasting entertainment
- Upgraded Kryo CPU with speeds up to 3.0 GHz* enables seamless and reliable entertainment experiences
- 6th generation Qualcomm AI Engine with Qualcomm® Hexagon™ 780 Processor for the industry’s most intelligent multimedia consumption and creation
- 2nd Gen Qualcomm® Sensing Hub with a dedicated lower-power always-on AI processor for intelligent assistance and contextual awareness
- Astonishing 32 TOPS
- Qualcomm Spectra 580 ISP enables triple concurrent capture with parallel processing at up to 2.7 gigapixels per second
- Three 28 MP photos or three 4K HDR videos at once
- Capture 120FPS burst photo at 12MP
- 4K HDR with computational HDR video capture
- Capture clearly in near darkness with low light architecture
- AI-based auto-focus and auto-exposure
- Full suite of Snapdragon Elite Gaming features including
- Variable Rate Shading for faster graphics performance
- Qualcomm Game Quick Touch increases display responsiveness
- Updatable drivers deliver the latest graphics and performance improvements in real time
- Natural Language Processing offers responsive voice commands and real-time translation for smarter global gaming
- FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System brings the fastest Wi-Fi 6 & 6E speeds of any mobile Wi-Fi offering in the industry (Up to 3.6 Gbps)
- Reimagined Bluetooth audio for a new class of crisp, reliable and responsive voice, music, movies, and gaming
- Compatible with both standalone and non-standalone modes
- CAI Compliant Camera – ensure the security & validity of images
- Qualcomm® Hypervisor Execution Environment: run multiple OSes simultaneously and securely
- Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 5 technology is 70% more efficient and supports 0-100% charging in less than 15 minutes**
- The Qualcomm Aqstic™ smart speaker amplifier (WSA8835) engineered to deliver a whopping 7.3W output power, almost doubling our previous generation of smart speakers, is a small chip with a big sound
- Qualcomm® AI-Enhanced Signal Boost adaptive antenna tuning
| CPU | CPU Clock Speed: Up to 3 GHz CPU Cores: Qualcomm® Kryo™ 680 CPU CPU Architecture: 64-bit |
| Qualcomm® Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine | AIE GPU: Qualcomm® Adreno™ 660 GPU AIE CPU: Qualcomm® Kryo™ 680 CPU Hexagon Processor: Qualcomm® Hexagon™ 780 Processor; 2nd gen Qualcomm® Sensing Hub, Large shared AI memory, Qualcomm® Hexagon™ Vector eXtensions (HVX), Qualcomm® Hexagon™ Scalar Accelerator, Qualcomm® Hexagon™ Voice Assistant Accelerator, Qualcomm® Hexagon™ Tensor Accelerator |
| Cellular Modem | Modem Name: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X60 5G Modem-RF System Peak Download Speed: 7.5 Gbps Multi SIM: Global 5G Multi-SIM Peak Upload Speed: 3 Gbps Performance Enhancement Technologies: Qualcomm® Smart Transmit™ technology, Qualcomm® Wideband Envelope Tracking, Qualcomm® AI-Enhanced Signal Boost adaptive antenna tuning, Qualcomm® 5G PowerSave 5G Spectrum: Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS), mmWave, sub-6 GHz 5G mmWave specs: 800 MHz bandwidth, 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO 5G sub-6 GHz specs: 200 MHz bandwidth, 4×4 MIMO Cellular Technology: 5G NR, HSPA, WCDMA, LTE including CBRS support, TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM/EDGE 5G Downlink speed: Up to 7.5 Gbps |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi/Bluetooth System: Qualcomm® FastConnect™ 6900 Standards: Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 5, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n Qualcomm® Wi-Fi 6 technology features: MU-MIMO (Uplink and Downlink), Dual-band simultaneous (DBS) (ready), OFDMA (Uplink and Downlink), 160 MHz channel support, WPA3 security support, 6 GHz operation (Wi-Fi 6E), 4K QAM, 8×8 sounding Wi-Fi Spectral Bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz |
| Bluetooth | Connection Topologies: LE Audio Features, Snapdragon Sound™ technology suite Bluetooth Specification Version: Bluetooth 5.2 |
| NFC | Near Field Communications: Supported |
| Location | Satellite Systems Support: Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS, Dual frequency GNSS, NavIC, NavIC enabled, GPS, GNSS, QZSS, SBAS |
| USB | USB Version: USB 3.1, USB-C |
| Camera | Image Signal Processor: Qualcomm Spectra™ 580 image signal processor, Triple 14-bit CV-ISPs, Hardware accelerator for computer vision (CV-ISP) Triple Camera, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps: Up to 28 MP Dual Camera, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps: Up to 64 MP Single Camera, MFNR, ZSL, 30fps: Up to 84 MP Single Camera: Up to 200 MP Camera Features: 10-bit HDR HEIF photo capture, Multi-frame Noise Reduction (MFNR), Real-time object classification, Low light photography architecture Slow Motion Video Capture: 720p @ 960 FPS Video Capture Formats: Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+, HEVC Video Capture Features: 4K HDR with Computational HDR video capture, 8K video capture at 30fps, Up to 10-bit color depth video capture |
| Video | Codec Support: Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), VP8, VP9 Video Software: Rec. 2020 color gamut video capture Display Max On-Device Display: 4K @ 60 Hz, QHD+ @ 144 Hz Max External Display: 4K @ 60 Hz HDR: HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision, HDR10 Color Depth: Up to 10-bit Color Gamut: Rec2020 |
| Audio | Qualcomm® Aqstic™ technology: Qualcomm® Aqstic™ audio codec up to Qualcomm® WCD9385, Qualcomm® Aqstic™ smart speaker amplifier up to Qualcomm® WSA8835, Qualcomm Aqstic™ audio technology Qualcomm® aptX™ audio playback support: Qualcomm® aptX™ Adaptive |
| GPU | GPU Name: Qualcomm® Adreno™ 660 GPU GPU Video Playback: Volumetric VR video playback, 8K 360 VR video playback API Support: OpenCL™ 2.0 FP, Vulkan® 1.1, DirectX® 12, OpenGL® ES 3.2 |
| Security Support | Fingerprint Sensor: Qualcomm® 3D Sonic, Qualcomm® 3D Sonic Max Secure Processing Unit: Biometric Authentication (Fingerprint, Iris, Voice, Face) |
| Process | Process Node and Technology: 5 nm |
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