Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 865 processor - here's everything you need to know

The first day of Qualcomm Summit has kicked off in Huawei, and we’ve already got a look at three new smartphone chipsets set to arrive on smartphones 2020. The three chipsets unveiled at the event included the flagship Snapdragon 865 and the Snapdragon 765 and 765G. The Snapdragon 865 is expected to power most Android flagships in 2020, while the Snapdragon 765 will be targeted towards premium mid-range smartphones.

Before we dive into the details about the three chips, there’s one big difference you should know. The Snapdragon 865 SoC can be paired with the Snapdragon X55 5G modem. This means phones with the 865 SoC will require a separate 5G modem, taking the price of the phones up and reducing power efficiency. The Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 765G, on the other hand, features an integrated 5G modem.

So, let’s take a look at all the details about the new chipsets in Qualcomm’s portfolio.

First and most important, the Snapdragon 865 SoC and Snapdragon X55 modem are pretty much a packaged deal, there’s no modem on board at all. The Verge also reported that it wouldn’t be possible for smartphone OEMs to make a 4G smartphone with Snapdragon 865 using a different 4G modem.

The new Snapdragon 865 chipset will pack an improved AI engine and be capable of 15 Trillion Operations Per Second (TOPS), which according to Qualcomm, is more than twice that of the SD855. The new image signal processor (ISP) on the 865 can decode 8K video at 60fps and record 8K video at 30fps. The new flagship chipset supports AptX Voice, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1.

As promised by Qualcomm, we also got a look at Qualcomm’s 700 series 5G chips. The Snapdragon 765 and 765G are equipped with integrated 5G modems, which means the mid-range 5G smartphones are coming. The chips can support camera sensors up to 192 megapixels and HDR 10 4K video recording.

The other big announcement on the first day of the summit was Qualcomm’s new 3D Sonic Max. This in-display fingerprint sensor offers a larger functional area with improved speed and accuracy. It also provides two-finger authentication. After such an exciting first day, we can’t wait to see what Qualcomm has in store for day-2 of the summit.