Snapdragon 888

Windows. © Qualcomm.

Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 888, its new 5nm system on a chip (SoC) with 5G technology, which will power just about every new high-end Android phone in 2021. The Kryo 680 CPU is promising performance improvements of 25 percent over last year’s 865 CPU, with a maximum clock speed of 2.84GHz. As for graphics, the Adreno 660 GPU promises gains of 35%. The 5nm process also supports improved energy-efficiency for the CPU and the GPU, specifically up to 25% for the Kryo 680 and 20% for the Adreno 660. Bowing to client pressure, Qualcomm finally decided to provide its SoC with an on-board 5G modem, namely the X60. This modem supports Wi-Fi 6 as well as the new Wi-Fi 6E, 6GHz standard. The image processor, the Spectra ISP, can simultaneously process three 4K HDR videos or three 28mp photos. The last major change over last year is the sixth-generation Qualcomm AI engine, the Hexagon 780, which should improve the processing of digital photos, games and voice assistants. All these specs should give you a pretty good idea of the possibilities of next year’s flagship Android phones. By the way, the 888 numbering breaks with Snapdragon’s pattern, which should have yielded 875. The change is a nod to Chinese culture, which views 8 as a lucky number: the Beijing Olympics started on 08/08/2008 at 8:08 p.m.. Your first chance to snag a Snapdragon 888 will probably come with the Samsung Galaxy S21, which is due to come out in the first quarter of 2021.

⇨ Ars Technica, Ron Amadeo, “Qualcomm’s new flagship SoC is the Snapdragon 888.”