Inside the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865: Phones List and more

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 will be powering most of the flagship smartphones coming from early 2020. Qualcomm announces its new SoC’s for both high end and mid-range devices, Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 765 respectively. 

Let’s Talk About Snapdragon 865 SoC...

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 is 25% faster in both GPU and CPU performance. This is a usual speed update that Qualcomm gives in its flagship SoC. SD 865 is a 7nm 8 core chipset like the last year but Qualcomm says this is the improved and modified version of the 7nm series. And with these changes, Qualcomm is able to achieve a 25% speed boost and 25% less battery consumption.

Snapdragon 865 Upcoming Phones

Here is the list of upcoming Phones with Mandatory 5G:

• OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro
• Samsung Galaxy S11 Series
• Google Pixel 5
• LG G9
• Pocophone F2
• Sony Xperia 3

For more compatible phones and official list, we have to wait for MWC 2020.

Performance

Qualcomm Update their big cores to Kryo 585 which is based on the ARM Cortex A77 cores. Last year, Snapdragon 855 was based on Keyo 485 cores, which uses ARM Cortex A76 cores.

Snapdragon 865 uses the same frequencies as the Last year, One main core at 2.84GHz and the other 3 cores at 2.42 GHz in A77. While the 4 cores of Cortex A55 are made for the smaller background lower power tasks and are clocked at 1.8GHz.

Other specification of Snapdragon 865 includes:

• Hexagon 698 Processor.
• Adreno 650 GPU (25% Faster)
• Spectra 480 ISP
• New Sensing Hub
• Adreno 650 is 25% faster in rendering and overall GPU performance.

Sensing Hub

If you have used Pixel 4 before then this is a familiar feature for you. Sensing hub senses the availability of a person near the device. It enables a device to sense the different human gestures and a user can do multiple functions by only using their gestures. Now it’s up to the manufacturers, how they use it. 

X55 Modem

Snapdragon 855 was the first 5G processor to release with the 5G capability. But Qualcomm made a separate modem for 5G called X50 and manufacturers had a choice to add 5G as a separate option. Snapdragon 855 came with a built-in gigabit LTE modem called X24. Last year manufacturers made two models of their flagship devices separately, 5G, and 4G models.

This year with the Snapdragon 865, Qualcomm made 5G as a mandatory feature of every Android flagship. Snapdragon 865 has no built-in modem and all manufacturers have to connect it to a new X55 5G modem to make it work. X55 is the 2nd Gen 5G modem from Qualcomm.

5G this year is more improved and compatible with more frequencies.

Its has a totally global solution for 5G which includes:

• NSA
• Carrier Aggregation
• SA
• DSS
• Sub 6 GHz band
• Signal Boost
• Millimeter Waves
• Envelop Tracking
• Smart Transit

Bigger In-Display Fingerprint Scanner

Qualcomm’s new in-display fingerprint scanner is 17 times bigger than its predecessor. It is covering more area on the display and even can scan two fingers simultaneously for improved security. Qualcomm named it 3D sonic max.

Improved Camera

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 comes with 2 Gigapixel per second capable Image signal processor. This means you can shoot videos in 8K up to 30 Frames per second. This is the first processor that can shoot 8K at 30FPS.
4K video recording is also improved. Now you can shoot 4K at 64 MP and each frame will be captured at 64 MP. 4K video recording can now support up to 120 FPS and Super Slow-mo at 960 FPS.

Qualcomm has merged the two separate files of a portrait image. You won’t see two separate images while taking portraits. They have done it by saving the portrait part of the image separately. Now you will be able to see your images without portrait effect years after taking it.

Judder Free Zoom

With Qualcomm SD 865, you can now zoom in and out without any Lag. Android phones are known for lagging while zooming in and out. Now this will not be the case with 865.
Snapdragon 865 is fast enough to handle the zoom feature without creating any lag.

Dolby Colors

Dolby colors are the standards of the film industry. Everyone is using it. But filmmakers apply Dolby colors after shooting the footage in raw. With the SD 865, you will be able to see the Dolby applied footage while recording it. Isn’t it amazing?
You can see the Dolby applied footage in real-time.

Snapdragon Elite Gaming Updates

Qualcomm is taking Desktop Level lighting features in mobile gaming with this SoC. Developers can now add high-quality lighting in their gaming and gaming quality will be more improved. They have done it by using forward rendering.

Game color Plus: With new Game Color Plus, the user will experience more rich colors in games. Even existing games will look better in devices with SD 865. This feature enhances the colors of the games

Updatable GPU drivers: Qualcomm made the drivers of the graphic processing unit separately in Snapdragon 865 chipset. The benefit is that the drivers of GPU can be tweaked and upgrade according to the latest games need. This will give the developers more room to think out of the box and make desktop-level games fro mobile devices. 

New AI Engine

Qualcomm introduced its 5th Gen AI engine in 865. With this real-time translation is much improved in the latest Snapdragon. Your 865 built-in device will be able to do this without any internet connection. 

This AI engine is capable of doing 15 TOPS which s times the previous Snapdragon Flagship chipset and 3 times faster than other Android SoC competitors.
Emojis will also be improved with this chipset. It can now detect very little face expressions with much fewer fails. 

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Key Takeaways

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 is the new king in the Android Smartphone market. 5G is a necessary feature as Qualcomm 865 only works with an X55 5G enabled modem. The speed update is conventional but the gaming and UI improvements have made a good jump. Overall it checks all the boxes and you will see 5G devices in the market more rapidly.