Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 855 Plus: A Higher Bin SKU
by Andrei Frumusanu on July 15, 2019 7:30 AM EST
Today Qualcomm is announcing a new small refresh of the Snapdragon 855 SoC: the new Snapdragon 855+. In the past Qualcomm had the habit of sometimes refreshing their flagship SoCs in the middle of their product life and give them a small performance boost, probably the most known chip fitting this pattern was the Snapdragon 821 from a few years ago. The S835 never got an upgrade, however the S845 last year did get a higher bin variant which ended up in a few vendor’s products, including the renamed Snapdragon 850 product that featured the same specifications.
| Qualcomm Snapdragon Flagship SoCs 2019 | |||
| SoC | Snapdragon 855 |
Snapdragon 855+ |
|
| CPU | 1x Kryo 485 Gold (A76 derivative) @ 2.84GHz 1x512KB pL2 3x Kryo 485 Gold (A76 derivative) @ 2.42GHz 3x256KB pL2 4x Kryo 485 Silver (A55 derivative) @ 1.80GHz 4x128KB pL2 2MB sL3 |
1x Kryo 485 Gold (A76 derivative) @ 2.96GHz 1x512KB pL2 3x Kryo 485 Gold (A76 derivative) @ 2.42GHz 3x256KB pL2 4x Kryo 485 Silver (A55 derivative) @ 1.80GHz 4x128KB pL2 2MB sL3 |
|
| GPU | Adreno 640 @ 585MHz | Adreno 640 @ ~672MHz | |
| Memory | 4x 16-bit CH @ 2133MHz LPDDR4x 34.1GB/s 3MB system level cache |
||
| ISP/Camera | Dual 14-bit Spectra 380 ISP 1x 48MP or 2x 22MP |
||
| Encode/ Decode |
2160p60 10-bit H.265 HDR10, HDR10+, HLG 720p480 |
||
| Integrated Modem | Snapdragon X24 LTE (Category 20) DL = 2000Mbps 7x20MHz CA, 256-QAM, 4x4 UL = 316Mbps 3x20MHz CA, 256-QAM |
||
| Mfc. Process | 7nm (N7) | ||
The new Snapdragon 855+ today closely follows this pattern: It’s overall the same SoC as the Snapdragon 855, however Qualcomm is raising the clocks of the Prime CPU core from 2.84GHz to up to 2.96GHz, giving a 4.2% boost for single-threaded workloads.
Along the CPU boost, we also find that the GPU is receiving a larger 15% performance boost. As the Adreno 640 in the 855 was clocked in at 585MHz, the clock on the 855+ has to be around the 672MHz mark, which is an oddly familiar frequency of Adreno GPUs.
Qualcomm states that we should expect hearing about vendor devices using the new Snapdragon 855+ in the next few weeks. Last year, ASUS was the first vendor to announce the ROG Phone using a higher binned S845 around the same summer time-period, and now the company has confirmed that the ROG Phone II will be also the first to use the new S855+.
I’m also guessing that it’s possible that Samsung’s upcoming Note10 to be powered by the S855+ as I’m expecting the phone to come with a new Exynos chipset this time around, and the Snapdragon counterpart getting a small boost as well would also make sense.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
17 Comments
View All Comments
Wardrive86 - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Hey your spec table for 855+ has cortex A75sgranets - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Am I the only one noticing the difference in core configuration between the two chips?psychobriggsy - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
I think we are seeing a cut and paste with incomplete modifications from a previous article with had the 855 up against the 845.Andrei Frumusanu - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Yes, sorry, copy-paste brain-fart.lionking80 - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
I think it is a mistake in this article. It should have the same configuration 1+3+4 and with the same base cores (A76 derivatives).NICOXIS - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Maybe Pixel 4 will sport this new chip?XVXVIII - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
Google Pixel 4 SHOULd sport this chip. I understand it is probably close to production but still, utilising an older chip while 855+ is released will not play too well for the tech enthusiasts.Sttm - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
That is cool. Maybe the note will once again get a better SoC than the Galaxy. Like it did back in the Note 4 days.plewis00 - Monday, July 15, 2019 - link
You’re right, it should do. I’m surprised they haven’t moved the product cycles closer to be honest. I looked at the Note9 but I can’t seriously consider it when the S10 range eclipses it somewhat. Also I hate how the UK has to suffer with the substantially worse Exynos variant - I hope whatever they do, they close the performance and efficiency gap this time or just give us Snapdragon...philehidiot - Tuesday, July 16, 2019 - link
For me it's not so much the performance / efficiency gap that's the issue (although it grates, it doesn't massively impact what I'm going to do with a phone). It's the fact that everything is worse; screen, camera processing, sound quality, etc in a product being sold under the same name as a better one. It's an all round lesser product in practically every area, and should be priced and named accordingly.