One of the most talked about chips in the history of mobile technology has been finally launched today and – as the latest rumors suggested – it won’t be called 8150 but it’ll instead follow the already running naming scheme: meet the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855.
The new Snapdragon 855 utilizes a 7nm manufacturing process that will bring lower power consumption, thus better battery, while still performing better than the predecessor (leaked score of 343000 on AnTuTu). There are also improvements on the AI side, the company claims it’ll now be “up to three times more powerful” compared to the Snapdragon 845.
But that’s far from being the only improvement, the new chip now has an upgraded dedicated vision processor (Spectra) that can process depth data at 60 frames per second, which means better performance in AR (augmented reality) tasks and we suspect it could be used to record videos with a built-in bokeh effect. Meanwhile ordinary videos can now be recorded at 4K HDR 60fps with just 25% of the processing power used before.
We then have Qualcomm’s new under display fingerprint scanner called 3D Sonic Sensor, this scanner utilizes ultrasonic technology to read fingerprints through the display and glass, plus it can recognize them even when yours hands are wet or dirty.
Finally, the biggest innovation we expected to see on the Snapdragon 855 – 5G connectivity – is only partially there. The chip will indeed come with an integrated Qualcomm Snapdragon X24 LTE Modem for up of to 2Gbps in download (theoretical), but if manufacturers want their smartphone to use the 5G network they’ll will have to pack in a separate Snapdragon X50 modem as well.
Snapdragon 855 vs Snapdragon 845
CPU Core | Semi-custom ARM Cortex – Kryo 485 | Semi-custom ARM Cortex – Kryo 385 |
CPU Config | 1x 2.84GHz (Cortex A76) 3x 2.42GHz (Cortex A76) 4x 1.8GHz (Cortex-A55) |
4x 2.8GHz (Cortex-A75) 4x 1.7GHz (Cortex-A55) |
GPU | Adreno 640 | Adreno 630 |
DSP | Hexagon 690 | Hexagon 685 with HVX |
Process | 7nm FinFET | 10nm LPP FinFET |
Camera support | 48MP single / 24MP dual Hybrid AF, HDR video. multi-frame noise reduction |
32MP single / 16MP dual Hybrid AF, HDR video. multi-frame noise reduction |
Video capture | 4K UHD, HDR @ 60fps | 4K UHD @ 60fps |
Video playback | 8K, 360 degree, 4K up to 120fps, 10-bit, H.265 and VP9 video decoder | 4K UHD @ 60fps, 10-bit H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) |
Charging | Quick Charge 4+ | Quick Charge 4+ |
Modem | X24 LTE 2000 Mbps down 316 Mbps up |
x20 LTE 1200 Mbps down 150 Mbps up |
As we can see in the tablet above, Qualcomm went with a 1 + 3 + 4 core design, which means there’s one powerful core (Cortex A76) with 512kb of L2 cache clocked at 2.84Ghz that will come into work in more resource hungry tasks, meanwhile the other three “middle” cores (Cortex A76) have 256kb of L2 cache at 2.42Ghz and finally the four small cores (Cortex-A55) top at 128kb of cache and 1.8Ghz clock speed.
Other upgrades include the Adreno 640 GPU and the Hexagon 690 DSP.
http://players.brightcove.net/1414329538001/BJv5wEFt_default/index.html?videoId=5975976473001
What do you guys think of the new chip? Are you satisfied with the upgrades or did you expect more?
We’ll update the post as more details get unveiled.
Brad
“Qualcomm’s President, Cristiano Amon, listed the list of vendors who would be utilising the Qualcomm’s chip to launch their 5G smartphones next year. The list includes ASUS, HMD (Nokia), OnePlus, OPPO, Samsung, vivo, and Xiaomi among others.”
Hawkins
Once again thanks for sharing the info. I have been ithcing for a new phone though my Honor 8 is still going strong. The news is pushing me towards hold off for new phones next year with this chip. I am OK without 5G full implementation since it can blow through me limited mobile data easily.