Qualcomm introduces the Snapdragon 888 Plus soc, an upgraded version of last year’s Snapdragon 888. The new soc has a maximum clock speed of 2.995GHz and has a more powerful AI processor that can deliver 32TOPS.
Like the Snapdragon 888, the 888 Plus has a Qualcomm Kryo 680 CPU with eight cores. It concerns four Cortex-A55 cores with a maximum of 1.8GHz, three Cortex-A75 cores with a clock speed of 2.42GHz and a more powerful Cortex-X1 core. This ‘prime’ core delivered a clock speed of up to 2.84GHz in the 888-soc, in the Plus it is up to 2.995GHz, according to Qualcomm.
The second improvement is that the Plus model gets a sixth-generation Qualcomm AI Engine with Hexagon 780 processor. This delivers in the Plus 32TOPS, twenty percent more than in the ‘regular’ 888 model. This faster AI processor makes AI tasks like AI super resolution and AI-based noise cancellation better, Qualcomm said.
Further specifications are the same, the Plus model gets the same Snapdragon X60 5G modem as the normal 888-soc with support for mmWave frequencies, among other things. Also, the Plus model has the same Spectra-ISP for processing photos and videos, which can process 2.7 gigapixels per second. That should make it possible to process 120 photos of 12 megapixels per second.
The first phones with the 888 Plus soc will appear in the second half of the year, according to Qualcomm. Flagship models from brands like ASUS, Honor, Motorola, vivo and Xiaomi get the new soc. Qualcomm further states that 130 devices in development or have already been announced that will receive the Snapdragon 888 or Snapdragon 888 Plus.