Qualcomm 888: Processing Reimagined

After the arrival of Apple A14 and M1 Chip, it’s only fair if Qualcomm launches some really powerful chips. On the second day of Qualcomm Tech Summit Qualcomm announced its most powerful chip yet Snapdragon 888. Huge Performance improvements and GPU gains, Camera improvements and so much more.

Let’s start with the basics. Qualcomm 888 will feature Kryo 680 CPU, which uses ARM’s latest customized Cortex-X1 Core. Qualcomm promises a 25% performance boost over the previous generation. On the GPU side, Qualcomm promises a 35% performance jump with a new and improved Adreno 660 over the previous generation. The CPU and GPU are also 20% and 25% more power-efficient compared to the previous generation respectively.

Qualcomm 888 is also the first processor by Qualcomm with an integrated 5G modem and will feature Qualcomm’s 5nm X60 5G modem. The new modem will enable better carrier aggregation and 5G speeds up to 7.5Gbps. The Processor will also feature Wifi 6 and Wifi 6E for better and faster Wifi Connectivity. Wifi 6E will be the new default standard for 2021 flagships.

Qualcomm 888 also features some of the most powerful camera improvements. The new Spectra 580 ISP is the first from Qualcomm to feature triple ISP allowing it to capture three simultaneous 4K HDR video streams or three 28 megapixel photos at once at 2.7gigapixel per second (35% faster than the previous year).

Improved burst capabilities will allow it to click 120 photos in a second with 10-megapixel size. The upgraded ISP also adds computational HDR to 4K for improved low light captures. We will see how the flagships use these powers in 2021. Another major upgrade is in the AI capabilities of SD 888. The 6th Generation AI engine Hexagon 780 can handle 26 trillion operations per second and delivers three times more power efficiency. The improved AI engine will assist in computing photo and video captures, gaming, voice assistance, and other AI tasks.

Smartphones powered by Snapdragon 888 will start showing in the first quarter of 2021. But are these improvements enough to compete with the world’s fastest processor? Well, that will be another versus battle episode. Till then I would take leave. Thanks for being here. Comment your queries down below.