Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 v/s 855: What has improved?
What's the story
Recently, Qualcomm has launched its latest flagship Snapdragon 865 chipset as a successor to the last year's Snapdragon 855 mobile platform. The new processor has achieved promising scores on the benchmarking platform Geekbench, recording a 23% increase over the single-core and multi-core scores of the Snapdragon 855. Here, we take a look at the improvements the 865 SoC brings over its predecessor.
Parameter #1
Snapdragon 865 v/s 855: Performance
The Snapdragon 865 is based on the same octa-core, tri-cluster 7nm architecture we saw on Snapdragon 855. The eight cores on the new chip include a primary 2.84GHz Kryo 585 core (Cortex A77-based), three performance-oriented 2.42GHz Kryo 585 cores, and four 1.8GHz efficiency cores based on Cortex A55 architecture. As per Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 865 will offer 25% faster CPU performance than the 855.
Parameter #2
GPU and memory
The Snapdragon 865 comes with an Adreno 650 GPU which is touted to offer a 20% performance boost over the Adreno 640 which powered the Snapdragon 855. The new GPU will support 10-bit HDR gaming, 8K video playback, and is the first-ever mobile GPU that'll receive driver updates via the Play Store. As for memory, the Snapdragon 865 will support upto 16GB of RAM.
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AI performance
While both the Snapdragon 865 and 855 are AI-powered, the former is said to be twice more powerful, thanks to a new 5th-generation AI engine. It supports 15 trillion operations per second to speed up AI-related tasks such as on-device, real-time translation and image processing.
Parameter #4
Camera and imaging performance
The Snapdragon 865 SoC comes with Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor (ISP) that can process 2 Gigapixels per second i.e. 200MP still photos. The ISP also supports 8K video recording with Dolby Vision support as well as 4K video recording at a higher 120fps. In comparison, the Snapdragon 855 packs a Spectra 380 ISP which supports upto 192MP still images.
Parameter #5
Connectivity features
The Snapdragon 865 SoC doesn't come with an integrated 5G modem but it is compatible only with the Snapdragon X55 5G modem. This means you won't get an 865-powered phone with a 4G modem. The X55 5G modem supports both sub-6 and mmWave standards and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS). The new chip also supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11a/x) and Bluetooth 5.1 standards.
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Biometric security
The Snapdragon 865 supports 3D Sonic Max biometric technology that can simultaneously recognize two fingers. The sensor is 17% bigger with a recognition area of 600 square millimeters. The Snapdragon 855 also supports an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner but for a single finger.