Qualcomm has announced its new flagship Snapdragon 855 Plus chipset. This chip further equips smartphones for gaming, VR, AI, and 5G connectivity.
While the chip keeps the same design and layout as the original Snapdragon 855, the Plus isn’t the same chip. It features eight-core Kryo CPU that runs at higher clock speeds of up to 2.96GHz. So while it looks the same, this chip is a different chip on the inside.
Improved VR gaming performance
The Snapdragon 855 Plus really seems to improve gaming performance. Performance under the Plus sees a 15 percent performance improvement from the Adreno 640 GPU. These kinds of numbers make it possible for the Plus to pave the way for more gaming-focused smartphones. Those kinds of game-centered phones include devices from Asus and Razer.
When it comes to specifically VR and AI improvements, Qualcomm says its fourth-generation AI Engine is capable of “more than 7 trillion operations per second.”
“Best-in-class cellular performance”
Qualcomm claims the Snapdragon 855 Plus will deliver “best-in-class cellular performance, superior coverage and all-day battery life in premium 5G devices.” It still uses two separate modems though. A Snapdragon X24 LTE 4G modem and Qualcomm’s X50 5G modem are both on board.
Paving the way for gaming phones
We will have to see if the Plus will make any noticeable improvements to the speed of the phones. We should expect to see phones that are more responsive and lag-free. That is always very important with gaming, so it’s exciting to see VR slowly maturing on multiple platforms.
Qualcomm says the new chipset will come to consumer devices during the second half of this year.
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