Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 855 Plus

Qualcomm today announced a new, overclocked version of its Snapdragon 855 mobile chipset that is optimized for 5G, gaming, AI, and XR.

“Snapdragon 855 Plus will raise the bar for elite gamers with the increase in CPU and GPU performance and elevate experiences for 5G, gaming, AI, and XR, which is something [device makers] look to us to deliver,” Qualcomm vice president Kedar Kondap said in a prepared statement. “Snapdragon 855 Plus is our most advanced mobile platform to date and will build upon the success of the 2019 Android flagship Snapdragon 855 5G mobile platform.”

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Compared to its predecessor, the 855 Plus is beefier, with Kryo 485 CPU Prime core clock speeds up to 2.96 GHz (vs. 2.84 GHz in the 855) and an Adreno 640 GPU that Qualcomm says offers a 15 percent performance boost. The Snapdragon Elite Gaming Experience includes a Vulkan 1.1 graphics driver that is 20 percent more power efficient than Open GL ES, plus software enhancements such as Game Jank Reducer, Game Fast Loader, Game AntiCheat Extensions, and more.

For AI, the 855 Plus will provide a 4th-generation multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine. The Snapdragon 855 Plus will ship with an integrated multi-gigabit Snapdragon X24 LTE 4G modem, but it will also support 5G networking if paired with an external X50 5G modem.

This release is rather unusual for Qualcomm, in that it has never released a mid-stream upgrade to an existing flagship mobile chipset. But with the firm expanding into more and more markets with customized chipsets, a “pro” or “plus” version of its mainstream mobile chipset could be arriving at an opportune time.

Devices built on the Snapdragon 855 Plus platform should arrive in the second half of 2019, Qualcomm says. That could help firms, like Samsung, Google, and OnePlus, that tend to ship flagship handsets in that time frame.

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Conversation 9 comments

  • proesterchen

    15 July, 2019 - 8:32 am

    <p>This company is pathetic. They are unable to compete on merit in their chosen market. Their products are only used because of IP leverage on cellular standards.</p><p><br></p><p>And now they are trying to sell a 4% overclock because their current 'high-end' SoC isn't fast enough to work properly with their own 5G modem. What a waste of space they are.</p>

    • CrownSeven

      Premium Member
      15 July, 2019 - 9:24 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#442709">In reply to proesterchen:</a></em></blockquote><p>Pathetic? You just described your comment.</p><p><br></p><p>Nothing wrong with a company who guards their IP, and is successful because of their portfolio of products? </p>

      • proesterchen

        15 July, 2019 - 11:10 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#442711">In reply to CrownSeven:</a></em></blockquote><p>This isn't about "guarding" one's IP, it's about inserting it into worldwide telecommunication standards, then leveraging that to force competitors to buy SoCs from you as a prerequisite to licensing this standards-essential IP to them.</p><p><br></p><p>This is all well-documented in FTC v. Qualcomm.</p>

        • PeterC

          15 July, 2019 - 12:53 pm

          <blockquote><em><a href="#442743">In reply to proesterchen:</a></em></blockquote><p>People, proesterchen is spot on here, it’s what Qualcomm do… it’s why brands like Samsung have to ship handsets with Qualcomm chips to some regions and xynos chips to other regions. </p>

    • Tony Barrett

      15 July, 2019 - 10:31 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#442709">In reply to proesterchen:</a></em></blockquote><p>You just described probably the largest ARM CPU making company on the planet as 'pathetic'. Odd.</p>

      • proesterchen

        15 July, 2019 - 11:11 am

        <blockquote><em><a href="#442732">In reply to ghostrider:</a></em></blockquote><p>You must underestimate the size of the ARM market by at least an order of magnitude, probably more.</p>

  • nicholas_kathrein

    15 July, 2019 - 9:32 am

    <p>If the Pixel 4 gets this it could really take away the talking points people use to poo on the fact that Google's phones come out at the end of the qualcom CPU cycle where there phones processors are no longer top of the line only 3 to 5 months after release.</p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    15 July, 2019 - 9:57 am

    <p>"Qualcomm has never released a mid-stream upgrade for a flagship chipset"? Weren't the 821 and 850 essentially overclocked versions of the 820 and 845, respectively? Both were announced in the summer just a few months after their predecessor's release.</p>

  • smartphonestrend

    20 July, 2019 - 5:42 am

    <p><a href="https://smartphonestrend.com/movies-counter-2019-download-latest-hindi-movies-in-hd/&quot; target="_blank">Movies counter</a> has closed it's website </p>

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