Thomas Dietrich
CPU developer Qualcomm and chip manufacturer TSMC have figured out how to get a little more performance out of the old 7Nm transistors. The result is a Snapdragon 865 Plus Plus – or, as you prefer to call it, the Snapdragon 870 (SM8250-AC). The CPU achieves the currently highest clock speed in the mobile world – the Prime Core runs at 3.2 GHz, compared to 3.1 GHz for the 865+ and 2.94 GHz for the normal 865. Both were beaten by the Kirin 9000 and its 3.13 GHz core. Now Qualcomm has taken back the crown in clock frequencies.
The Snapdragon 870 still uses Kryo 585 cores, based on ARM’s Cortex-A77 design, with some internal improvements. The brand new Snapdragon 888 chipset instead builds on the newer Cortex-X1 primary core and three A78 cores. And although the X1 runs at a lower frequency of 2.84GHz, the processing power is higher. Hopefully the first benchmarks will soon shed some light on this.
Nothing changes in terms of graphics – the Adreno 650 GPU is still part of the SD 870. It is not yet known whether the clock rate has also been increased. The GPU ran at 587 MHz in the S865 and 670 MHz in the 865+. The Hexagon 698 (the sub-processor of the Adreno 650) delivers the same 15 TOPS as in the two S865 chips, so no higher clock was used.
The graphics unit can drive 1440p displays at up to 144 Hz (or 4K at 60 Hz) and supports HDR10+. The Spectra 480 ISP is also unchanged and processes the data from sensors with up to 200 megapixels. 8K video recording at 30 fps (and 4K at 120 fps) and high dynamic range video using HDR10+ and Dolby Vision standards are also possible.
Snapdragon 870 5G specifications:
| Exynos 1080 | Snapdragon 865+ | Snapdragon 870 | Snapdragon 888 | Kirin 9000 | |
| Process | Samsung 5 nm EUV | TSMC 7 nm | TSMC 7 nm | Samsung 5 nm EUV | TSMC 5 nm EUV |
| CPU (primär) | 1x Cortex-A78 @ 2.8 GHz | 1x Cortex-A77 @ 3.1 GHz | 1x Cortex-A77 @ 3.2 GHz | 1x Cortex-X1 @ 2.84 GHz | 1x Cortex-A77 @ 3.13 GHz |
| CPU (groß) | 3x Cortex-A78 @ 2.6 GHz | 3x Cortex-A77 @ 2.42 GHz | 3x Cortex-A77 | 3x Cortex-A78 @ 2.42 GHz | 3x Cortex-A77 @ 2.54 GHz |
| CPU (klein) | 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2.0 GHz | 4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8 GHz | 4x Cortex-A55 | 4x Cortex-A55 @ 1.8 GHz | 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2.05 GHz |
| GPU | Mali-G78 MP10 | Adreno 650 (670 MHz) | Adreno 650 | Adreno 660 | Mali-G78 MP24 |
| NPU | 5.7 TOPS | 15 TOPS | 15 TOPS | 26 TOPS | ? |
| 5G Modem | 3.67 Gbps (mmWave), 5.1 Gbps (sub-6) | 7.5 Gbps (mmWave)sub-6 | 7.5 Gbps (mmWave), sub-6) | 7.5 Gbps (mmWave), sub-6 | 6.5 Gbps (mmWave), 4.6 Gbps (sub-6) |
| Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi 6 | Wi-Fi 6E (6GHz) | Wi-Fi 6 | Wi-Fi 6E (6 GHz) | Wi-Fi 6 |
Likewise, the FastConnect 6800 system appears to be the same. It supports Wi-Fi 6 (up to 1.77 Gbps) and Bluetooth 5.2 with aptX Voice. However, the 865+ came with the slightly updated FastConnect 6900, which also supports Wi-Fi 6E. There is no integrated 5G modem, instead the chipset is paired with an external Snapdragon X55 with Sub-6 and mmWave support (up to 7.5 Gbps downlink speeds).
The Snapdragon 870 is scheduled to launch in the Motorola Edge S and in phones from OnePlus, Oppo, Xiaomi and iQOO. According to Motorola, the launch of a new smartphone is imminent. However, the American manufacturer did not go into details.
