Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 Plus unveiled: A smartphone CPU that finally broke the 3.0 GHz barrier

Qualcomm just announced the overclocked version of the flagship 5G chipset, in the form of the Snapdragon 865 SoC. The successor to the Snapdragon 855 Plus builds on the success of the Snapdragon 865 5G mobile platform, which has powered over 140 smartphones models that have either been announced or is being developed.

Like its predecessor, the Snapdragon 865 Plus is designed to deliver increased performance across the board for superior gameplay. The Snapdragon 865 Plus SoC also debuts as the first mobile chipset to surpass the 3.0 GHz CPU clock speed. Last year, the SD855 Plus came close, hitting 2.96 GHz.

With the Snapdragon 865 Plus, Qualcomm has managed to push its Prime CPU core up to 3.1 GHz, an increase of 10 percent over the 2.84 GHz frequency on the standard SD865 SoC. The Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset also supports 144Hz displays, but it has a 10 percent better chance of hitting the higher frame rates in games as the Adreno 650 GPU has received a clock boost to deliver 10 percent faster graphics rendering.

Also Read: Lenovo Legion Gaming Phone arriving in July with Snapdragon 865 SoC and a 'never seen before' layout

Alex Katouzian, Senior VP and GM, Qualcomm Mobile Division, said, “As we work to scale 5G, we continue to invest in our premium tier, 8-series mobile platforms, to push the envelope in terms of performance and power efficiency and deliver the next generation of camera, AI and gaming experiences. Building upon the success of Snapdragon 865, the new Snapdragon 865 Plus will deliver enhanced performance for the next wave of flagship smartphones.”

One change in hardware is the move to FastConnect 6900, up from 6800, which enables support for the latest Wi-Fi 6E, which works in 6 GHz band to deliver speeds of up to 3.2 Gbps and under 3ms latency. The chipset uses an external Snapdragon X55 5G modem to deliver global 5G connectivity.

Two handsets have already confirmed the use of the Snapdragon 865 Plus SoC, and it comes as no surprise that both of them are gaming devices. The first is the Asus ROG Phone 3 that is launching on July 22, while the second is the Lenovo Legion gaming phone, which is also scheduled to arrive later this month.

Also Read: Asus ROG Phone 3 receives Bluetooth certification ahead of July launch