Snapdragon 888 Plus launched with a faster CPU, better AI engine

Qualcomm at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2021 launched its most powerful mobile platform yet, the Snapdragon 888 Plus SoC for high-end flagship phones. It is an upgraded version of the Snapdragon 888 which was announced in December last year. The new model will power smartphones launching in Q3 2021. 

Christopher Patrick, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobile Handset Business, Qualcomm Technologies, said, “Snapdragon is synonymous with premium Android experiences. Our latest flagship Snapdragon 888 Plus 5G Mobile Platform will help deliver the premium entertainment, connectivity, and gaming experiences users deserve. We’re excited to see OEMs launch with products based on our highest performing platform.”

The prime Cortex-X1 core of the Snapdragon 888 Plus is clocked at 3.0GHz (exact measured speed is 2.995GHz) as opposed to 2.84GHz prime clock speed on the Snapdragon 888. The sixth-gen Qualcomm Hexagaon 780 AI engine provides 20% higher performance and can now deliver 32TOPS instead of 26 TOPS on its predecessor. 

Other than these two changes everything else remains largely untouched. The Snapdragon 888 Plus has Adreno 660 GPU and same as Snapdragon 888, the X60 5G modem that gives 7.5 Gbps top download speed. The FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System allows multi-gigabit Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E speeds and for reliable speeds in crowded areas, it has advanced multi-user traffic management features. 

It has a Qualcomm Spectra 580 ISP that enables triple concurrent capture with parallel processing at up to 2.7 gigapixels per second. This means the chipset is capable of capturing three 28MP photos or three 4K HDR videos at once. It can also shoot 120FPS burst photos at 12MP, capture brighter photos, even in near-darkness and offers AI-based auto-focus and auto-exposure. 

Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 is supported on this SoC that can fully charge the phone in 15 minutes and it has the Qualcomm Aqstic smart speaker amplifier (WSA8835) which can deliver a 7.3W output power. It is also having Snapdragon Elite Gaming features like Variable Rate Shading for faster graphics performance and Qualcomm Game Quick Touch for better display responsiveness. The maximum supported display is 4K with a 60 Hz refresh rate or QHD+ at a 144 Hz refresh rate.