The Snapdragon 888 flagship chipset has been launched and it will power flagship smartphones in 2021, including brands like BlackShark, realme, OnePlus, OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi – the usual suspects, basically.
The Snapdragon 888 packs an 8th-Gen Snapdragon X60 5G modem that supports mmWave and Sub-6 bands of 5G. There’s also support for carrier aggregation, global multi-SIM, stand alone, non-stand alone, and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.
Image credit: Qualcomm
When it comes to performance, the chip is supposedly capable of 144FPS gaming on mobile devices thanks to updatable graphics drivers for a new Adreno GPU. On top of that, the drivers for said GPU can also be updated down the line, extending its life-cycle even longer.
In spite of improved more powerful hardware, the chipset is also more power-efficient thanks to the new 6th-Gen Qualcomm AI Engine which uses lower-power always on AI processing features to run the show.
When it comes to imaging, the chip uses a new Spectra ISP that’s 35% faster which Qualcomm claims let smartphone capture about 120 photos at 12MP resolution at a speed of 2.7 gigapixels per second. In terms of connectivity, there’s also support for WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2.
One of the first smartphones to pack the new Snapdragon processor will be the Xiaomi Mi 11, and according to previous reports, we could see its arrival this January.