Android update – Your new flagship smartphone could soon look hugely outdated

Android is Google’s mobile operating platform that powers over 2.5 billion devices across the globe.

Many flagship smartphones that run the software are powered by processors from American semiconductor firm, Qualcomm.

Qualcomm is renowned for its top-tier chipsets that are responsible for delivering rapid performance to a legion of handsets from various manufacturers.

The firm’s most recent processor had been the Snapdragon 855 that is housed inside a number of new products such as Samsung’s Galaxy S10 range, the OnePlus 7 series and OPPO’s Reno lineup for instance.

Express.co.uk has tested all three and can confirm each delivers incredibly swift performance overall.

However, Qualcomm has now announced a successor to the Snapdragon 855, dubbed the Snapdragon 855 Plus.

The Snapdragon 855 Plus “features a boost in performance” that should make it more capable when tackling certain functions, such as gaming for instance.

In particular the American firm insisted the new platform should provide a 15 percent increase in performance thanks to its Adreno 640 GPU – meaning devices running the silicon should be able to play the latest and greatest titles on the Google Play Store with ease.

Essentially, the 855 Plus bears an incredibly similar design to the regular 855 but has a higher clock speed, up to 2.96GHz.

In addition to gaming, Qualcomm also insisted the Snapdragon 855 Plus should be more capable than its predecessor in terms of conducting virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI) operations.

Moreover, it added 5G smartphones equipped with the 855 Plus should be able to deliver “all-day battery life”.

While the new hardware does not seem set to radically outpace current technologies, it should provide a notable boost to Android handsets later this year.

Announcing the new chipset Kedar Kondap, the vice president for product management at Qualcomm, said: “Snapdragon 855 Plus will raise the bar for elite gamers with the increase in CPU and GPU performance and elevate experiences for 5G, gaming, AI and XR, which is something our OEM customers look to us to deliver.

“Snapdragon 855 Plus is our most advanced mobile platform to date and will build upon the success of the 2019 Android flagship Snapdragon 855 5G mobile platform.”

The announcement of the refreshed chipset comes as other manufactures, such as Huawei and Samsung, are also rumoured to be planning the release of upgraded processors in the coming months.

Qualcomm’s new silicon is expected to feature in Android smartphones later this year.

source: express.co.uk