Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 powered smartphones are arriving in Q1 2020

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 is barely a day old, but a stampede of smartphone OEMs are already gearing up to bring the new chipset to their flagships in 2020. And, while some companies just offered commitments, other confirmed specific handsets that will use the 865 chip.

Chinese luxury smartphone maker 8848 has already confirmed the Titanium M6 5G will be the first handset to feature the Snapdragon 865 SoC and the X55 5G modem. Xiaomi co-founder Bin Lin confirmed the SD865 on the Mi 10 during the Qualcomm Summit in Huawei, while Meizu’s official Weibo account has confirmed the Meizu 17 with the same chipset will arrive next Spring.

Other brands, including Samsung, Oppo, Motorola, Realme, and Nubia, to name a few, have also announced handsets with Qualcomm’s new flagship chipset. Realme’s claimed Q1 2020 seems like a reasonable timeline for a flagship smartphone with the new chipset. Additionally, we also know the Nubia Red Magic will be the first gaming smartphone to sport an SD865 system-on-chip.

Since the Snapdragon 865 SoC comes bundled with the X55 5G modem, the upcoming Mi 10, Meizu 17, and a version of the Nubia Red Magic will likely arrive in 5G-only variants. Given Realme’s announcement, the company could reveal its first flagship 5G handset in Q1 2020.

The Samsung Galaxy S11 is expected to make use of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC in American and Chinese markets, while European and other Asian markets will get an Exynos chipset. You can also expect the OnePlus 8 series to arrive with the new chipset.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chipset offers some major improvements over the Snapdragon 855. Qualcomm’s latest mobile platform delivers significant improvements in AI and camera performance. CPU and GPU, on the other hand, offer nominal performance gains but isn’t a huge leap forward from the previous generation.