The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 has been officially touting significant gains in 5G, gaming, and GPU performance.
The chipset features the X60 5G modem and a Hexagon engine for all AI-related tasks includes global Sub-6 and mmWave connectivity, global multi-SIM, and dynamic spectrum sharing.
It was introduced at the annual Snapdragon Tech Summit
Qualcomm is also updating its Snapdragon Elite Gaming suite of gaming optimizations to support 144Hz displays, with the chip vendor noting that the Snapdragon 888 chipset delivers the “most significant upgrade” in GPU performance. There’s also a sixth-generation AI engine, with the redesigned Hexagon module offering sizeable gains in AI-related use cases.
The Spectra ISP is also getting an overhaul, and Qualcomm notes that it now allows you to take photos and videos at 2.7 gigapixels per second, or 120 photos at 12MP resolution, a 35% increase from the previous generation.
The Snapdragon 888 will make its way to flagship phones starting early next year, and Qualcomm has announced a list of manufacturers powered by the platform:
Between them, you have ASUS Black Shark Lenovo LG MEIZU Motorola Nubia Realme OnePlus OPPO Sharp Vivo Xiaomi ZTE
We’ll see the first wave of devices featuring the chipset sometime in February, with availability kicking off a month after that. But then again, with Samsung set to announce the Galaxy S21 series on January 15 and the OnePlus rolling out the OnePlus 9 in March — four weeks earlier than the norm, we may not have to wait long to see what’s on offer with 2021 flagships.
On that note, it is interesting that Samsung’s name isn’t mentioned in the list. Samsung uses Qualcomm’s chipsets in the U.S. and Korea, but the fact that it is missing from the list of Qualcomm’s partners suggests a few things might change in 20121. It might be a case of Samsung doesn’t want to be associated with the rest of the manufacturers, and with the Galaxy S21 series slated for a launch next month, we will know more soon.
