Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 870: an 865 ++?



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Today Qualcomm is making a rather unexpected SoC announcement in the form of the new Snapdragon 870. The chip is a rather odd version of Qualcomm’s line of chipsets in that it’s actually a spin-off part of last year’s Snapdragon 865 series, with the new model being a new silicon bin that increases clock rates for a small performance boost, although it gets a model name that would indicate larger changes ( of which there is none).

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SKU
SoC Snapdragon 865 Snapdragon 865+

Snapdragon 870

CPU 1x Cortex A77
At 2.84 GHz 1×512 KB pL2

3x Cortex A77
At 2.42 GHz 3×256 KB pL2

4x Cortex A55
At 1.80 GHz 4×128 KB pL2

4 MB sL3 at? MHz

1x Cortex A77
@ 3.09 GHz 1x512KB pL2

3x Cortex A77
At 2.42 GHz 3×256 KB pL2

4x Cortex A55
At 1.80 GHz 4×128 KB pL2

4 MB sL3 at? MHz

1x Cortex A77
@ 3.2 GHz 1x512KB pL2

3x Cortex A77
At 2.42 GHz 3×256 KB pL2

4x Cortex A55
At 1.80 GHz 4×128 KB pL2

4 MB sL3 at? MHz

GPU Adreno 650 to 587 MHz Adreno 650 to 670 MHz
DSP / NPU Hexagon 698

15 TOPS AI
(Total CPU + GPU + HVX + Tensor)

Memory
Controller
4x 16-bit channels

@ 2133 MHz LPDDR4X / 33.4 Gb / s
or
At 2750 MHz LPDDR5 / 44.0 Gb / s

3MB system level cache

ISP / Camera Dual ISP Spectra 480 14-bit

1x 200MP

64MP ZSL or 2x 25MP ZSL

4K video and 64MP burst capture

Encode/
Decode
8K30 / 4K120 10 bit H.265

Dolby Vision, HDR10 +, HDR10, HLG

Infinite recording 720p960

Integrated modem no
(Paired with external X55 only)

(Category LTE 24/22)
DL = 2500 Mbps
AC 7x20MHz, 1024-QAM
UL = 316 Mbps
AC 3x20MHz, 256-QAM

(5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave)
DL = 7000 Mbps
UL = 3000 Mbps

Mfc. Process TSMC
7 nm (N7P)

Still based on the design of the “SM8250” silicon chip that we saw used in the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 865+ last year, the new Snapdragon 870 is also part of this family, with the suffix “AC” SKU on the aforementioned part model number.

The specification changes compared to the Snapdragon 865+ released last summer are rather limited and only affect the main processor core: the fastest Cortex-A77 core here goes from 3.09 GHz to 3.2 GHz.

Qualcomm’s rationale for calling it the Snapdragon 870 is simply that they didn’t want to use something like a “Snapdragon 865 Plus Plus”, although I would say calling it a “Snapdragon 865 Pro” or “Snapdragon 866” could have been a little more representative of what the chip is.

The release of this new SKU is quite odd, as this is the first time Qualcomm has announced a next-gen a coin refresh after the announcement and commercial release of their latest flagship SoC, the most recent Snapdragon 888.

In today’s press release, Qualcomm shares that key customers such as Motorola, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO and Xiaomi will use the Snapdragon 870 in a selection of flagship devices this year. It’s also quite odd, as in the past we’ve rarely seen vendors release new phones based on an SoC design from last year.

One theory I had was that because this generation we haven’t seen a successor to the Snapdragon 765 (which was announced in 2019 in tandem with the 865) yet, and that maybe instead of creating a Dedicated SoC in this “premium” SoC range, the company could recycle the flagship SoCs of the previous year, a tactic which, in my opinion, could be perfectly valid and viable. The company rejected the idea, however, revealing that the new 870 was not intended to replace the 765, and that a true successor to the 765 would come later.

So it looks like this year we will see new models of contemporary smartphones with the Snapdragon 888 as well as the Snapdragon 870 in the flagship segment, which will be quite interesting to see how it goes in terms of performance, features and in particular. price differentiation.

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