Today Qualcomm has unveiled the latest version of its flagship Snapdragon 865 processor called the Snapdragon 865 Plus. It boosts performance by almost 10 percent from its predecessor and its main use will be for gaming and AI applications.
There are three key improvements of the Snapdragon 865 Plus from the stock standard 865:
- The Kryo 585 CPU has had its clock speed boosted up to a maximum of 3.1GHz, which is 10 percent higher than the standard 865
- The Adreno 650 GPU offers 10 percent faster graphics rendering
- Newly added compatibility for Qualcomm’s FastConnect 6900 connectivity suite, which the company says supports Wi-Fi speeds up to 3.6Gbps
Its not the first time the company is pimping up its old processors with more power, last year, it refreshed to the Snapdragon 855 Plus model, which offered improvements to CPU and GPU performance for gaming compared to the regular 855. It also means that Qualcomm isn’t using the midyear refresh to add the most anticipated upgrade to the Snapdragon 865: integrating the Snapdragon X55 modem into the main chipset instead of requiring a separate component within the phone (which takes up more space and can impact battery life). Unfortunately, it seems like that improvement will have to wait for Qualcomm’s 2021 flagship, at the earliest.
Don’t expect to encounter this processor if you are not a gamer, as last year’s processor ended up in gaming-focused Android phones, like the Asus ROG Phone II, the Nubia Red Magic 3, and the Black Shark 2 Pro, although it also was in more mainstream devices like the OnePlus 7T Pro, too. Qualcomm says that the first Snapdragon 865 Plus phones will be officially announced starting in Q3
