The New Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Gets A Speed Bump For Flagship Phones

Dhir Acharya - Jul 17, 2019

Traditionally, Qualcomm releases only one flagship processor each year. However, it may be breaking its own tradition with the Snapdragon 855 Plus.

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Traditionally, Qualcomm releases only one flagship processor each year. For example, the Snapdragon 855 is currently the company’s top-spec chip. The company announced the chip in 2018 and has since put it into consumer devices earlier this year such as the Galaxy S10, followed by a number of high-end Android smartphones. However, it looks like the chipmaker is breaking its own tradition.

The new Snapdragon 855 Plus carries refreshed specifications which include new Kyro 485 Prime CPU cores from Qualcomm, whose clock speeds now reach up to 2.96GHz. The maker also claimed that the processor’s Adreno 640 GPU works 15 percent better.

The-Snapdragon-855-is-currently-the-top-spec-chip-of-Qualcomm-1 — The Snapdragon 855 is currently the top-spec chip of Qualcomm

Not only boosting the chip’s performance, but Qualcomm also unveiled several gaming improvements that is previously introduced, like “Game Jank Reducer” which is claimed to limit lag and jitter during mobile gaming. There is also the Game AntiCheat Extensions as well as Game Fast Loader for reducing the time taken to fire up an app.

In addition, the 855 Plus comes with support for the 5G X50 modem, which means phone makers can use for future 5G devices. However, it’s unclear how well the 855 Plus works with 5G because the chipmaker hasn’t said whether this chip is compatible with its X55 5G that supports sub-6GHz 5G bands and mmWave 5G.

It makes sense that Qualcomm has included gaming features on the 855 Plus considering the fact that ASUS announced to use Qualcomm’s chip in its ROG Phone 2. Nevertheless, there haven’t been many details as the phone won’t debut till July 23.

The-855-Plus-may-feature-in-the-Galaxy-Note-10-and-other-coming-flagships-2 — The 855 Plus may feature in the Galaxy Note 10 and other coming flagships

If we can tell from the announcement’s timing, we can expect the chip to appear in the Galaxy Note 10, set to be announced on August 7, as well as various flagship phones to come out this fall like Google’s Pixel 4.

The Snapdragon 855 Plus doesn’t come with any game-changing upgrades, but there should be appealing features in the refreshed chip for premium Android smartphones that will come out later this year. And boosting the chip’s performance for Android devices is helpful as Apple may roll out a new A-series processor this fall.