After the presentation of the Snapdragon 865 At the end of last year, we can understand that Qualcomm would announce a slightly more powerful version of its flagship silicon in 2020.
While the company may not have officially announced it, a leak claims that the Snapdragon 865 Plus and its launch could happen much earlier this year, if we're lucky.
Snapdragon 865 Plus for beyond mid-2020?
As is well known by now, Qualcomm announced a slightly more powerful version of the Snapdragon 855, the Snapdragon 855 Plus in 2019. Aside from an increase in CPU and GPU clock speed, there was nothing else that separated the Snapdragon 855 Plus from the Snapdragon 855.
For 2020, we believe that for the launch of Snapdragon 865 Plus, Qualcomm should add a few things for manufacturers to take note of its importance.
According to a Weibo user Digital Chat Station, the launch of Snapdragon 865 Plus will take place in the third quarter of 2020. It implies that two engineering samples are expected to be available within two months. Judging by this monthly tally alone, those two Snapdragon 865 Plus prototypes should be available in April for phone makers.
They can then decide if the small changes are worth it or not. Speaking of small changes, one big difference Qualcomm can make is making sure the Snapdragon 865 Plus has a modem. 5G integrated.
Unlike the Snapdragon 765, the Snapdragon 865 does not ship with a built-in 5G modem. This complicates things for manufacturers, as they now have to make additional changes to the logic board layout and leave enough room to accommodate a separate modem.
Apple is also rumored to be thinking of bringing its own 5G modem to this year's iPhone 12 2020 lineup. One reason is that Apple is upset with the size of the Snapdragon X55 5G modem, a component rumored to be in all iPhone 12 models this year.
Going by this rumor alone, Android phone makers would have little time to make additional room for that modem. In addition, they will have to design a more capable power supply and cooling system so that the modem does not overheat and throttle.
These little things may seem insignificant, but they will drive up costs in a variety of categories, causing the mobile phone's retail price to skyrocket. With the launch of the Snapdragon 865 Plus, Qualcomm is able to ease the situation a bit for its partners, while also improving the usual processes, such as increasing the clock speed of the base CPU and GPU.
If possible, Qualcomm may also bring in an improved ISP for the Snapdragon 865 Plus. This should allow owners of more powerful mobile phones to record 8K videos of more than 5 minutes on their smartphones.
Other than these changes, we can't think of anything else at the moment, but feel free to share what you think should be a viable change or addition for the launch of the rumored Snapdragon 865 Plus.
We'll see what creative ideas you've thought of in the comments.