Qualcomm unveiled its flagship mobile platform, the Snapdragon 888, at its Technology Summit 2020 event as its newest and best mobile processor that is sure to be faster and better than the previous generation Snapdragon 865. The first batch of phones set to hit the market in the first quarter of next year, including the Xiaomi Mi 11.
According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 888 is the first Snapdragon 888 to use ARM’s Cortex-X1 architecture, and while the frequency remains the same as the Snapdragon 865, the overall performance has increased by 25 percent, thanks in large part to the X1 super-core.
The Snapdragon 888 differs from the Snapdragon 865 GPU continues to lead the Android pack with an undisclosed frequency integration of the Adreno 660, which officially boosts performance by as much as 35 percent.
The ISP integration with the Spectra 580, the first Snapdragon mobile platform to support triple ISP, is capable of processing 2.7 billion pixels per second and supports three cameras simultaneously. Other differences include the Snapdragon 888’s Hexagon 780 AI engine (26 TOPS of computing power), integrated X60 5G baseband, Bluetooth 5.2 support, and Wi-Fi 6E (6GHz), among other features.
Snapdragon 865 features four Cortex-A77 performance cores and four Cortex-A55 efficiency cores, built by TSMC using its 7nm manufacturing process and complemented by the Adreno 650 graphics processor. While Snapdragon 888 Manufactured using Samsung’s 5nm process, the Snapdragon 888 features 1 x 2.84GHz (ARM’s latest Cortex X1 cores) + 3 x 2.4GHz (Cortex A78) + 4 x 1.8GHz (Cortex A55) cores for a 25% increase in overall CPU performance and a 25% increase in GPU performance. It is the Adreno 660, which offers a performance increase of up to 35%.
The new Snapdragon 888 includes an artificial intelligence performance of 26 terabit operations per second (TOPS). Qualcomm says it’s the considerable leap forward ever made in artificial intelligence. For comparison, the Snapdragon 865 tops out at 15 TOPS. The 73% speed increase will enable a new generation of image and sound recognition, as well as gaming, AR, and other processing. Full specifications of Snapdragon 888 can be found here, below is Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 865 Comparison.
Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 865 Comparison of Specifications
| Features | Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 1x Kryo 585 (ARM Cortex A77-based) Prime core @ 2.84GHz, 1x 512KB L2 cache 3x Kryo 585 (ARM Cortex A77-based) Performance cores @ 2.4GHz, 3x 256KB L2 cache 4x Kryo 385 (ARM Cortex A55-based) Efficiency cores @ 1.8GHz, 4x 128KB L2 cache 4MB L3 cache 25% faster performance YoY | 1x Kryo 680 (ARM Cortex X1-based) Prime core @ 2.84GHz, 1x 1MB L2 cache 3x Kryo 680 (ARM Cortex A78-based) Performance cores @ 2.4GHz, 3x 512KB L2 cache 4x Kryo 680 (ARM Cortex A55-based) Efficiency cores @ 1.8GHz, 4x 128KB L2 cache 4MB L3 cache 25% faster performance YoY |
| GPU | Adreno 650 Vulkan 1.1 Snapdragon Elite Gaming with new Desktop Forward Rendering, Game Color Plus, updatable GPU drivers 20% faster graphics rendering YoY 35% more power efficient YoY | Adreno 660 Vulkan 1.1 Snapdragon Elite Gaming with new Qualcomm Game Quick Touch and Variable Rate Shading features 35% faster graphics rendering YoY 20% more power efficient YoY 43% AI performance boost YoY |
| Display | Maximum On-Device Display Support: UHD @ 60Hz, QHD+ @ 144Hz Maximum External Display Support: UHD @ 60Hz HDR support DisplayPort over USB Type-C support | Maximum On-Device Display Support: UHD @ 60Hz, QHD+ @ 144Hz Maximum External Display Support: UHD @ 60Hz HDR support DisplayPort over USB Type-C support Demura and subpixel rendering for OLED uniformity |
| AI | Hexagon 698 with Hexagon Vector eXtensions and new Hexagon Tensor Accelerator 5th generation AI Engine Qualcomm Sensing Hub 15 TOPS | Hexagon 780 with Fused AI Accelerator architecture 6th generation AI Engine Qualcomm Sensing Hub (2nd generation) New dedicated AI processor 80% task reduction offload from Hexagon DSP 5X more processing power YoY 16X larger shared memory 50% faster scalar accelerator, 2x faster tensor accelerator YoY 26 TOPS |
| Memory | 4 x 16-bit LPDDR4 @ 2133MHz, 16GB LPDDR5 @ 2750MHz 3MB system level cache | 4 x 16-bit LPDDR4 @ 2133MHz, 16GB LPDDR5 @ 3200MHz 3MB system level cache |
| ISP | Dual 14-bit Spectra 480 ISP Single camera: Up to 64MP with ZSL Dual camera: Up to 25MP with ZSL Video capture: 4K HDR @ 60 fps + 64MP burst images; 4K @ 120 fps; 8K @ 30 fps; Slow motion up to 720p@960 fps (unlimited); HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision | Triple 14-bit Spectra 580 ISP Single camera: Up to 84MP with ZSL Dual camera: Up to 64+25MP with ZSL Video capture: 4K HDR @ 60 fps + 64MP burst images; 4K @ 120 fps; 8K @ 30 fps; Slow motion up to 720p@960 fps (unlimited); HDR10, HDR10+, HLG, Dolby Vision Designed for staggered HDR image sensors Support for 10-bit color depth photo capture in HEIF New low-light architecture (capture photos in 0.1 lux) 2.7 Gigapixels per second throughput (35% speed increase YoY) |
| Modem | Snapdragon X55 4G LTE and 5G multimode external modem Downlink: 7.5Gbps (5G), 2.5Gbps (4G LTE) Uplink: 3Gbps, 316Mbps (4G LTE) Modes: NSA, SA, TDD, FDD mmWave: 800MHz bandwidth, 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO sub-6 GHz: 200MHz bandwidth, 4×4 MIMO | Snapdragon X60 4G LTE and 5G multimode integrated modem Downlink: 7.5Gbps (5G) Uplink: 3Gbps Modes: NSA, SA, TDD, FDD 5G CA across FDD and TDD mmWave: 800MHz bandwidth, 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO sub-6 GHz: 200MHz bandwidth, 4×4 MIMO |
| Charging | Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ (27W) Qualcomm Quick Charge AI | Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 (100W+) |
| Connectivity | Location: Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS, QZSS, SBAS, NavIC capable, Dual Frequency support Qualcomm FastConnect 6800 Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 6 certified; 2.4/5GHz Bands; 20/40/80 MHz Channels; DBS, TWT, WPA3, 8×8 MU-MIMO, OFDMA, 1024QAM Bluetooth: Version 5.1, aptX TWS, aptX Adaptive, and aptX Voice | Location: Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS, GPS, QZSS, SBAS, NavIC capable, Dual Frequency support Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 6 & 6E certified; 2.4/5GHz/6GHz Bands; 20/40/80/160 MHz Channels; 4-stream DBS, TWT, WPA3, 8×8 MU-MIMO, OFDMA, 4KQAM Bluetooth: Version 5.2, LE Audio Features (one-to-many broadcast), Qualcomm TrueWireless Mirroring, aptX TWS, aptX Adaptive, and aptX Voice |
| Process | 7nm (TSMC’s N7P) | 5nm (Samsung) |
