Qualcomm has announced their newest flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 888. Here are some key points concerning the Snapdragon 888.
AI
Without taking this to an overly technical level, you can expect big gains in AI performance on the Snapdragon 888 thanks to a second generation “Sensing Hub” which will help offload lower-power operations from parts of the chipset with a high power draw to increase performance. In addition, the available memory for AI cores has increased 1500% percent, with faster AI accelerators.
Camera
Improved AI performance also translates into the camera performance of Snapdragon 888 devices. Qualcomm has produced new Saliency Auto Focus and Auto Exposure engines, which will help improve image accuracy.
In addition, the 888 allows for triple camera phones to be fully utilized, with triple camera capture at 28MP each. There also is new HDR capabilities, with 10-bit color depth in HEIF format.
Networking
The Snapdragon 888 now has an integrated 5G modem. Previous iterations of the Snapdragon processors required that the modem be added on, so this integration is a big step.
The 888 also brings Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, meaning the 888 brings the best of the best in connectivity.
Gaming
For you gamers, the Snapdragon 888 brings updates to Snapdragon Elite Gaming platform, with lower latency, more power efficiency, and better graphics rendering thanks to Variable Rate Shading (a feature previously available only for PCs and next-gen consoles) for a richer in-game world.
Manufacturers that will be using the Snapdragon 888
The Snapdragon 888 wouldn’t be notable if there weren’t already manufacturers developing with it. Here’s a list of manufacturers that will be using the new chipset:
- ASUS
- Black Shark
- Lenovo
- LG
- MEIZU
- Motorola
- Nubia
- Realme
- OnePlus
- OPPO
- Sharp
- Vivo
- Xiaomi
- ZTE
You might notice Google and Samsung are missing from this list, though this is most likely just an error. Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S21 is expected soon and it’s unlikely they’d ship that without the newest processor.