Qualcomm has officially announced its new flagship processor, the Snapdragon 865 Plus. This is a half-cycle update, basically, as it’s a successor to the Snapdragon 865.
Much like the Snapdragon 855 Plus, the SD865 Plus delivers gaming-related improvements. It was confirmed that it will fuel the upcoming ASUS and Lenovo gaming smartphones.
The Snapdragon 865 Plus can render graphics 10-percent faster than SD865
The Snapdragon 865 Plus Adreno 650 GPU will render graphics 10-percent faster compared to the SD865. It also supports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Elite Gaming features. Those include HDR gaming, and game smoothing.
The Snapdragon 865 Plus also comes with a Kryo 585 CPU which is also faster than the one on the SD865, by 10-percent. It also has compatibility with Qualcomm’s FastConnect 6900 platform, it can deliver WiFi speeds of up to 3.6Gbps.
It also delivers “first-to-mobile” features, like updatable GPU drivers, and desktop forward rendering. True 10-bit HDR gaming is also supported by this chip.
This chip can be paired with the Snapdragon X55 modem-RF system, in order to enable 5G connectivity. That combo is capable of producing speeds of up to 7.5 Gbps (download), and 3 Gbps (upload).
The ASUS ROG Phone 3 will utilize this chip soon, as will the Lenovo Legion. The ASUS ROG Phone 3 launches on July 22, and it could become the very first phone with this processor.
Many other smartphone manufacturers will probably jump on board. OnePlus’ 8T series is expected to ship with that processor, as is the Galaxy Note 20 series. Those are just some examples.
First SD865 Plus-powered commercial devices coming soon
Qualcomm also confirmed that the first commercial devices based on the SD865 Plus are expected to be announced in the third quarter of this year. As already mentioned, the ASUS ROG Phone 3 is coming on July 22, so it fits.
Qualcomm did not mention whether the Snapdragon 865 Plus will ship separately from the 5G modem, but it probably will not. That modem is not integrated, but the company will probably sell it as part of a bundle, same as with the SD865.
That means that you won’t see a Snapdragon 865 Plus-powered device out there, without 5G, at least that’s our guess, but we’ll see what will happen.
There you have it, the very first Snapdragon 865 Plus-powered devices are right around the corner. ASUS will probably be the first, while Lenovo’s handset will follow soon after, along with various other smartphones. All five Galaxy-branded flagships that are expected to arrive in August will be fueled by this processor, almost certainly.