Bye Bye 865, Hello Snapdragon 870

A New Processor For Mid-Range Phones

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 powers the new flagship phones for this generation and thanks to today’s news we know what processor will power the mid-range phones which make up the majority of the market.  The new Snapdragon 870 is a somewhat upgraded 865, offering some improvements but nothing groundbreaking which should help keep the cost at reasonable levels,

It will see a frequency boost to 3.2GHz, which will make it faster than both the 2.84GHz Snapdragon 865 and the 3.1Ghz of the 865 Plus.  Apart from the frequency boost there is no real difference, it is still using a Kryo 585 CPU with Adreno 650 GPU cores just as the previous generation which has led some to call it the 865 Plus Plus.

You will see the new chip in phones from Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, and Xiaomi in the near future, but unless you current phone is on it’s last legs picking up the 2021 model will not offer much in the way of an upgrade.   The pricing of these new phones is still up in the air, as the marketing from Qualcomm is a bit confusing.  They have suggested that the processor will show up in devices priced under $800 but considering the new Samsung Galaxy S21 sells for $799, so pricing these phones close to that will not make them particularly attractive.

Here’s hoping that they hit the market at a noticeably lower price point.