Today Qualcomm is making a very unexpected SoC announcement in the form of the new Snapdragon 870. The chip is a rather strange launch in Qualcomm’s chipset line, as it is actually a part of last year’s Snapdragon 865 series, with the new model being a new silicon bin that increases clock frequencies for a small increase in performance, although it is receiving a model name that would indicate more substantial changes (which do not exist).
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SKUs | ||||
| SoC | Snapdragon 865 | Snapdragon 865+ |
Snapdragon 870 |
|
| CPU | 1x Cortex A77 @ 2.84 GHz 1×512 KB pL2 3x Cortex A77 4x Cortex A55 4 MB sL3 @? MHz |
1x Cortex A77 @ 3.09 GHz 1x512KB pL2 3x Cortex A77 4x Cortex A55 4 MB sL3 @? MHz |
1x Cortex A77 @ 3.2 GHz 1x512KB pL2 3x Cortex A77 4x Cortex A55 4 MB sL3 @? MHz |
|
| GPU | Adreno 650 @ 587 MHz | Adreno 650 @ 670MHz | ||
| DSP / NPU | Hexagon 698
15 AI TOPS |
|||
| Memory Controller |
4x 16-bit CH
@ 2133 MHz LPDDR4X / 33.4 GB / s 3 MB system-level cache |
|||
| ISP / Camera | Dual 14-bit Spectra 480 ISP
1x 200 MP 64 MP ZSL or 2x 25 MP ZSL 4K and 64MP video burst capture |
|||
| Code/ Decode |
8K30 / 4K120 10 bit H.265
Dolby Vision, HDR10 +, HDR10, HLG 720p960 endless recording |
|||
| Integrated Modem | none (Paired with external X55 only) (LTE Category 24/22) (5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) |
|||
| Mfc. Process | TSMC 7nm (N7P) |
|||
Still based on the “SM8250” silicon chip design that we saw employed on the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 865+ last year, the new Snapdragon 870 is also part of this family, with the suffix “AC” SKU in the mentioned model number.
Specification changes compared to the Snapdragon 865+ that launched last summer are quite limited and only concern the main CPU core: The fastest Cortex-A77 core here goes from 3.09 GHz to 3.2 GHz .
Qualcomm’s justification for calling it Snapdragon 870 is simply that they didn’t want to use something like a “Snapdragon 865 Plus Plus”, although I would argue that calling it “Snapdragon 865 Pro” or “Snapdragon 866” may have been a little more representative of what the chip is.
The launch of this new SKU is quite strange, as it is the first time that Qualcomm announces an update of a next-generation part after the announcement and commercial launch of its latest flagship SoC, which is the latest Snapdragon 888.
In today’s press release, Qualcomm informs that major customers, such as Motorola, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO and Xiaomi, will make use of the Snapdragon 870 on a selection of major devices this year. This is also very strange, as in the past we have rarely seen vendors launching new phones based on a SoC design from last year.
One theory I had is that, due to this generation, we haven’t yet seen a successor to the Snapdragon 765 (which had been announced in 2019 in conjunction with the 865), and that perhaps instead of doing a dedicated SoC on that “premium” SoC interval, the company could recycle the previous year’s flagship SoCs, a tactic that, in my view, could be perfectly valid and viable. The company, however, rejected the idea, revealing that the new 870 is not intended to replace the 765, and that a true successor to the 765 will come further down the line.
So it looks like this year we’ll see new contemporary smartphone designs with both the Snapdragon 888 and Snapdragon 870 in the main segment, which will be quite interesting to see how it works in terms of performance, features and especially price differentiation.