At the Snapdragon Tech Summit Digital 2020, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 888 chip – the flagship chip for next-generation Android smartphones. Like every year, Qualcomm is promising notable all-round improvements over the outgoing Snapdragon 865. The CPU details remain unknown but it is the rest of the stuff that’s seemingly going to improve performance benchmarks in 2021 Android flagships.
Before we dive into the limited details of the chip, you should know that a bunch of smartphone manufacturers from across the globe have already confirmed launching phones with the Snapdragon 888. Starting 2021, you will see Snapdragon 888-equipped smartphones from Asus, Black Shark, Lenovo, LG, Meizu, Motorola, Nubia, Realme, OnePlus, Oppo, Sharp, Vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE.
Xiaomi even went ahead to confirm its Mi 11 flagship smartphone being powered by the Snapdragon 888 chip.
Snapdragon 888 details
Qualcomm, for now, has kept the details of the new CPU under wraps and we don’t have any information on what kind of percentage boosts we can expect in terms of raw performance. However, Qualcomm revealed all the other areas where the Snapdragon 888 is an improvement over 865.
-The Snapdragon 888 now gets an integrated 5G modem, which should hint at lower component prices and therefore, at lower prices for the end-consumer. There’s a Snapdragon X60 5G modem onboard that supports both mmWave and sub-6 5G networks, 5G carrier aggregation, global multi-SIM, stand alone, non-stand alone, and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.
#ICYMI at the #SnapdragonSummit, @Jon4Lakers remotely raced a 5G #mmWave-connected RC car against professional RC racer @RondaDrakeRC with #Snapdragon 888 5G Mobile Platform-powered smartphones — and holy #5G, was it awesome. Check it out below. pic.twitter.com/bcE96jzNIm
— Qualcomm (@Qualcomm) December 1, 2020
-The updated Qualcomm Hexagon processor with a 6th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine promises better AI performance than before. The new chip is rated at 26TOPS of AI processing performance, which is much higher than the recently announced Apple M1 chip. There’s also second generation Qualcomm Sensing Hub, which incorporates lower-power always-on AI processing.
-The Adreno GPU is now capable for 144 fps gaming and gets all of the existing Snapdragon Elite Gaming features such as updateable GPU drivers and Desktop Forward rendering.
-”With the faster gigapixel speed Qualcomm Spectra ISP, users can capture photos and videos at 2.7 gigapixels per second or roughly 120 photos at 12-megapixel resolution—up to 35 percent faster than the previous generation,” says Qualcomm for the imaging part.
