Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus revealed — what phones will it power?

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus revealed — what phones volition it power?

(Image credit: Qualcomm)

The scrap that will power high-end Android phones in the second half of the yr is making its debut at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week. And Qualcomm is promising a organization-on-chip that's a lot smarter than its predecessor.

The Snapdragon 888 Plus, shown off at a Qualcomm keynote today (June 28) , improves the hardware and optimizes the software for the Hexagon 780 processor that powers Qualcomm's 6th generation AI engine. The result is that this fleck can produce 32 trillion operations per 2d (TOPS) — a 20% increment over the TOPS performance of the Snapdragon 888 chipset released terminal Dec.

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The Kryo CPU on the Snapdragon 888 Plus system-on-chip gets a boost, too, with Qualcomm increasing the speed of the prime core to 3GHz; it was 2.84GHz on the Snapdragon 888. That should interpret to improved app response fourth dimension and browser functioning, amid other benefits.

Otherwise, the capabilities of the Snapdragon 888 Plus match what Qualcomm delivered with the Snapdragon 888, including 5G connectivity, Snapdragon Aristocracy Gaming features that aim to bring console gaming to mobile and a Spectra 580 triple Isp capable of capturing from upwards to 3 lenses simultaneously. Similar the Snapdragon 888 earlier it, the 888 Plus will be the silicon of selection for the best Android phones coming out the rest of 2021.

Specifically, Qualcomm expects phones powered by the Snapdragon 888 Plus to start actualization during the third quarter of the year. That timing fits in well with the rumored August unveiling of Samsung'south latest foldable phones. Both the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold three and Milky way Z Flip 3 are expected to launch in August, and by versions of those phones have as well been powered by the best version of Qualcomm silicon available at the fourth dimension of their release.

The same tin be said for OnePlus' second-half flagship phone this year, which is rumored to be called the OnePlus 9T. While concluding twelvemonth's OnePlus 8T stuck with the same Snapdragon 865 system-on-chip found in other OnePlus 8 phones, the OnePlus 7T released the previous year did upgrade to a Snapdragon 855 Plus from the Snapdragon 855 chipsets in the OnePlus seven phones.

Typically, the T model of OnePlus' flagship phones comes six months after the telephone maker'southward final flagship handsets came out. The OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro both debuted in March.

Of course, neither Samsung nor OnePlus were amongst the phone makers pledging support for the Snapdragon 888 Plus during Qualcomm'due south announcement today. While the chip maker doesn't denote which unreleased phones are using its upcoming silicon, it did include testimonials about the Snapdragon 888 Plus from Motorola, Asus' ROG division, Vivo, Xiaomi and Honor.

Qualcomm and 5G

The arrival of the Snapdragon 888 Plus covered only a chip of the news in Qualcomm'south keynote, with the chip maker likewise using the spotlight of Mobile Globe Congress to tout the growth of millimeter wave 5G. That's the high-speed version of 5G that delivers functioning that's much faster than LTE. Thus far, mmWave has been primarily implemented in the U.Southward., where it's a large part of Verizon 5G.

That'southward changing, according to Qualcomm, which says that twoscore-plus global operators and device makers around the world are committed to supporting mmWave 5G. (AT&T, U.s.a. Cellular and Motorola were amidst the U.S. firms cited by Qualcomm.) There are currently more than than 120 devices that support mmWave 5G, with most all of them powered by Snapdragon.

And the speeds should figure to increase. Qualcomm says that its upcoming Snapdragon X65 modem, due out later on this year, tin at present top 10 Gbps in over-the-air testing. While Qualcomm probable hit that figure in platonic conditions, it still suggests that faster speeds are ahead as 5G continues to roll out.

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Philip Michaels is a senior editor at Tom's Guide. He has strong opinions about Apple, the Oakland Athletics and old movies. Follow him at @PhilipMichaels.