Meet the chip that will power some of the most important Android phones of 2019, including OnePlus’s first 5G handset and probably the Galaxy S10. This is the Snapdragon 855, which Qualcomm formally announced yesterday. Now on Wednesday, Day 2 of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Tech Summit in Hawaii, the focus turns from 5G to Snapdragon 855’s inner details, where we’ll hear exactly how much faster and better it is than last year’s model will be the focus of today’s keynote.
The processor may not sound as sexy as a phone’s camera, screen or even the battery, but it’s the component that runs the show: connecting quickly to the internet and Wi-Fi, gaming, processing photos and helping keep your phone secure from hacks. Follow along with the announcements below.
You can watch today’s stream embedded above or at qualcomm.com at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m PT.
This story covers the event live and updates often.
5G connection, 4G speeds, faster Wi-Fi
You want to know about how much faster a phone with Snapdragon 855 can be. 4G LTE data speeds can get up to 2Gbps, Qualcomm says, which is about twice the speeds of today’s 1 Gbps theoretical threshold.
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But what about 5G? 5G phones will use the Snapdragon 855 as well, but the modem — which connects the phone to the data network — is a separate. 4G phones will get the built-in Snapdragon X24 modem, but 5G phones will need to use a separate Snapdragon X50 modem to talk to 5G networks. When Wualcomm does eventually integrate the 5G modem on a future Snapdragon, it will make the platform smaller, cheaper for phonemakers to buy and even more efficient.
Speed improvements also extend to Wi-Fi. Qualcomm revealed faster Wi-Fi (60Ghz) that can achieve 10 Gbps speeds on mobile. In addition, it’ll be more power efficient as well. That’s a big boon for mobile gaming and streaming large video files.
This is Qualcomm’s 5G reference phone with the Snapdragon 855 chip.
Jessica Dolcourt/CNET
Gaming gains with 45 percent faster CPU, 20 percent faster GPU
The Snapdragon 855 is Qualcomm’s first chip made with the 7 nanometer (nm) process, which means that the transistors are very small. A smaller chip size means that you can fit more elements into the phone, including a potentially bigger battery.
Qualcomm says that the 855 chip has a 45 percent faster CPU and 20 percent faster GPU than Snapdragon 845 (the chip on the Galaxy S9, Pixel 3 and so on). The company says this represents the biggest performance leap of any Snapdragon upgrade. Qualcomm claims that its co-processors save more power of a sustained period of time than competitor chips made with the same 7nm process (e.g. Intel). This is something we’ll be able to test in the future.
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