Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 powers the majority of the flagship Android smartphones on the market today, but for the second half of the year, it’s getting a slight revision. The new Snapdragon 855 Plus promises a bit more power overall, as well as bringing a faster GPU for phones coming out in late 2019.
The current Snapdragon 855 is no slouch. In fact, the chipset that powers killer devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S10 and OnePlus 7 Pro has proved fast and more than capable of anything you throw at it. Just a few months later, though, a couple of tweaks are allowing Qualcomm to eke out just a bit more performance for late 2019 smartphones.
With the new Snapdragon 855 Plus, the first improvement is increased clock speed. The 855 Plus can go up to 2.96GHz which should offer a bit more performance when it’s needed most. Further, there’s also an upgrade for the Adreno 640 GPU which Qualcomm says should result in a 15% performance increase. Qualcomm points out that these improvements should be especially helpful for gaming phones.
Aside from these tweaks, this is mostly the same chipset as we’ve seen in phones for the past few months, right down to the Snapdragon X24 4G and Qualcomm X50 5G modems.
Qualcomm says that new devices with the Snapdragon 855+ should be coming out in the second half of this year. Apparently, the ASUS ROG Phone II will be the first of those, but beyond that, we’re just not sure. Perhaps, for once, Google will get a leg up on earlier flagships by using this new chip in the Pixel 4. One can hope, at least.
Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 855 Plus Mobile Platform
Upgraded Flagship Platform to Support Enhanced Performance and Experiences in 5G, Gaming, AI and XR
JUL 15, 2019 | SAN DIEGO
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), unveiled the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 Plus Mobile Platform, a follow on to the flagship Snapdragon 855 launching with leading OEMs globally, built for speed to support enhanced performance and deliver leading experiences in multi-gigabit 5G, gaming, AI and XR. The platform features a boost in performance that will raise gaming to the next level for a truly Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Elite Gaming experience—especially when gaming in the 5G arena.
“Snapdragon 855 Plus will raise the bar for elite gamers with the increase in CPU and GPU performance and elevate experiences for 5G, gaming, AI and XR, which is something our OEM customers look to us to deliver,” said Kedar Kondap, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Snapdragon 855 Plus is our most advanced mobile platform to date and will build upon the success of the 2019 Android flagship Snapdragon 855 5G mobile platform.”
Snapdragon 855 Plus with an integrated multi-gigabit Snapdragon X24 LTE 4G modem also supports 5G connectivity using the X50 5G modem and Qualcomm Technologies’ RF Front-end solutions to deliver best-in-class cellular performance, superior coverage and all-day battery life in premium 5G devices. The platform also offers the following enhancements over Snapdragon
855:
- Qualcomm® Kryo™ 485 CPU Prime core clock speed at up to 2.96GHz
- Qualcomm® Adreno™ 640 GPU offers a 15% increase
Snapdragon 855 Plus includes many of the latest technologies and features from Qualcomm Technologies related to gaming, AI and XR, offering consumers outstanding performance for premium user experiences for the things they want to do most:
- Gaming: Snapdragon 855 Plus is built for speed to support enhanced performance and deliver leading experiences in gaming. The Snapdragon Elite Gaming Experience gives you a competitive edge with a full suite of hardware and software features that are fully optimized for gaming, including the Vulkan 1.1 Graphics Driver that is 20% more power efficient than Open GL ES. The Snapdragon Elite Gaming Experience also features software enhancements such as Game Jank Reducer, Game Fast Loader, Game AntiCheat Extensions, and more.
- AI: Experience ultra-responsive gaming with the 4th generation multi-core Qualcomm®
AI Engine, which offers a total capacity of more than 7 trillion operations per second (7
TOPs), providing a powerful blend of dedicated and programmable AI acceleration
- XR: Experience immersive XR (virtual reality/augmented reality) easily with XR viewers that connect to a mobile device fueled by the Snapdragon 855 Plus with the 5G X50 modem, able to access blazing-fast, ultra-smooth 5G experiences.
Commercial devices based on Snapdragon 855 Plus are expected to be commercial 2H 2019. For full specifications on Snapdragon 855 Plus visit: https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon-855-plus-mobile-platform.
More on Qualcomm:
- Qualcomm readying new Snapdragon Wear ‘429’ chip w/ more efficient design for Wear OS
- Qualcomm 215 brings performance and battery gains for affordable smartphones
- More Snapdragon Chromebooks are on the way, starting with ‘Trogdor’
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