Snapdragon 888 and not Snapdragon 875 is the latest Qualcomm premium SoC. It’s going to power most flagship phones starting from 2021 with Xiaomi, among the first OEM to release a Snapdragon 888 phone. The company didn’t give enough details on why they didn’t follow the sequential order of naming its premium processor this time, but we hope to find out soon enough.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 SoC has finally integrated a 5G modem. That could probably make the price of Snapdragon 888 phones more affordable, considering that last year’s Snapdragon 865 requires that OEMs include a separate chip. All Snapdragon 888 phones will debut with Qualcomm X60 modem, which debuted a couple of months ago. It offers improvement for 5G carrier aggregation across the mmWave and sub-6GHz.
Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 888 is built on a 5nm process and will offer better power efficiency compared to the predecessor. The chips make use of Qualcomm’s sixth-gen AI Engine, which has improved the performance and power efficiency for AI tasks. The Chip also boasts of a third-generation Qualcomm Elite Gaming platform, which according to the company, is the “most significant upgrade in Qualcomm Adreno GPU performance.”
Interesting, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 will improve smartphone photography. The new Chip will “transform smartphones into professional-quality cameras.” According to the company, Snapdragon 888 phones will capture up to 120 photos per second at 12MP resolution, which is about 35% faster when compared to Snapdragon 865.
The Snapdragon 888 comes with a Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming arsenal. It has been optimized to deliver ultra-smooth gameplay at the highest HDR quality graphics. The SoC, for the first time, introduced Variable Rate Shading to Mobile devices. It has improved game rendering up to 30%.
As said earlier, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 uses a 5nm process, and that makes it a performance monster and power efficient. It makes use of Kryo 680 cores, with 25% performance uplift to the CPU, which allows a frequency of 2.84GHz for the single power Arm Cortex-X1. Adreno 660 GPU will improve graphic rendering on SD 888 phones, and according to Qualcomm, by up to 35%.
There has been a breakthrough in connectivity, and with the third generation Snapdragon X60 modem, Snapdragon 888 phones can achieve up to 7.5Gbps speed. The Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Mobile system brings support for Wi-Fi 6 speeds. Also, a new 6GHz capacity with Wi-Fi 6E means even better performance.
The security of Snapdragon 888 phones will also improve. The SoC has implemented security measures like Qualcomm secure unit, Qualcomm trusted execution environment, and Qualcomm wireless edge service. The former of the three is a cloud service that Qualcomm interacts with for apps and services to measure its security in real-time for a secure experience.
Supposed list of Snapdragon 888 phones; SD 888 phones
Xiaomi Mi 11
Xiaomi’s latest flagship phone is the first to debut the Snapdragon 888 SoC. It’s paired with up to 8GB of RAM and 256GB of non-expandable storage. The device draws power from a 4600mAh battery with support for 55W wired charging, 50W wireless charging, and 10W reverse charging. It runs MIUI 12 on top of Android 11 outside-of-the-box and starts at just $610.
The Camera is a triple arrangement. It consists of a primary 108MP sensor, 13MP ultrawide angle-lens, and a 5MP telephoto/macro lens. At the front, integrated inside a punch hole, is the 20MP selfie snapper. It sits on a 6.81-inch Super AMOLED QHD+ display with 120Hz Adaptive Sync and 480Hz touch sampling rate. Check here for the full specification.
Vivo iQOO 7
PRICE: $583
The Vivo iQOO 7 is the second Snapdragon 888 phone to debut behind the Mi 11. It comes with impressive specs and an affordable price tag, but Mi 11 is a better phone when both phones are compared.
Meanwhile, the Vivo iQOO7 sports a 6.62-inch AMOLED display and features a 120Hz refresh rate and HDR10+. It keeps a FullHD+ resolution, unlike the Mi 11 with QHD+. Coupled with the SD 888 SoC is a 12GB RAM and 256G ROM; not expandable. The Adreno 660 GPU will deliver the best graphics, and you’ll be able to enjoy seamless multitasking.
Behind the camera is a 48MP shooter, paired with a 13MP portrait lens and 13MP ultrawide angle lens. On the front panel is a 16MP snapper with HDR support, while the primary camera can only shoot videos at 4k@30fps.
Powering the device is a 4000mAh battery, which is poor, given that it’s a game-centric device. It supports 120W fast charging, and that should give you a 100% charge in 15 minutes. Other features include 5G support, Wi-Fi 6 certified, under-display optical fingerprint scanner, Bluetooth 5.2, NFC. It’s offered in Gray, Blue, and White at a starting price of $583.
Galaxy S21 series
PRICE: $999 – $1300 | ORDER FROM Galaxy S21
The Galaxy S21 series comprises the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and Galaxy S21 Ultra. Of course, they’re all 5G phones running Snapdragon 888 SoC with up to 8GB of RAM.
Meanwhile, the S21 Ultra is the most sophisticated as Samsung has equipped it with some of the smartphone’s finest features. It has a QHD+ Dynamic AMOLED 2k display with 120Hz refresh rate, HDR10+, 1500nits peak brightness, and Victus Gorilla Glass protection.
The camera features a primary 108MP snapper, a 10MP periscope telephoto lens with 10x optical zoom. There’s another 10MP telephoto lens with 3x optical zoom, all with OIS PDAF autofocus so far. The fourth snapper is a 12MP ultra-wide angle lens with a Super speedy video feature, while the front camera integrates a 40MP snapper that can shoot 4K@30/60fps. Meanwhile, the rear camera can shoot 8K@24fps and 4K@30/60fps.
Powering the device is a 5000mAh battery, and aside from the huge capacity, every other aspect could be better. First, it only supports 25W fast charging, 15W wireless charging, and 4.5W reverse charging. Other features are ultrasonic under-display fingerprint scanner, Bluetooth 5.2, Wi-Fi 6, 5G certified, and all the Samsung UI features.
As for the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21 Plus, they’re only a scaled-down S21 Ultra. It’s more affordable but doesn’t worth upgrading from Galaxy S20.
Redmi K40 Pro and K40 Pro Plus
Xiaomi surprised everyone when they released three Redmi K40 series phones instead of the usual two. However, only the Redmi K40 Pro and K40 Pro Plus run Snapdragon 888 SoC paired with up to 12GB RAM. The duo is essentially the same phone, but their camera hardware defers. That’s for the primary sensor, though. The Pro Plus gets a 108MP shooter, while the Pro models have a 64MP snapper. The other two sensors are the same across the board, and they are an 8MP ultrawide angle-lens and a 5MP macro shooter.
The display measures 6.67-inches diagonally. It refreshes at 120Hz with a 360Hz touch sampling rate for a smooth on-display experience. Power is drawn from a beefy 4520mAh battery which supports 33W fast charging and would give you a fully charged battery under 52 minutes. On the software side, the duo runs Android 11 on top of MIUI 12, and that makes it eligible for Android 12 and 13. It’s offered in White, Black, and Aurora starting from $435.
POCO F2
Poco has stressed that the POCO F2 Pro isn’t the direct successor of the popular Pocophone F1. According to the company executive, the brand is yet to succeed, the value for money flagship killer, and we anticipate the unveiling to be next year. That said, we expect the device to run the Snapdragon 888 SoC.
Xiaomi Mi Mix 4
Xiaomi MI Mix Alpha
Xiaomi suspended the release of a new Mi Mix phone this year, but according to a leak, the company will unveil a device under the series next year. And since that’s where Xiaomi shows off its innovative prowess, we anticipate a folding screen, under-screen camera, and possibly a 200W fast charging solution.
Realme Race
Realme is currently working on a device with the Snapdragon 888 SoC. According to latest report, the device name is Race and will debut with Android 11. The device will have a 12GB memory variant and will run realme UI version 2.0.
Confirmed Devices that will run Snapdragon 888 SoC
- Xiaomi Mi 11 and 11 Pro
- Galaxy S21
- Redmi K40 Pro
- Realme Race
- Lenovo K12
- ZTE Nubia Z20
- Meizu 18 and 18 Max
- Oppo Find X3
Other Snapdragon 888 phones include the OnePlus 9, Samsung Galaxy S21, Samsung Galaxy Note 21, Realme 7 Pro+, and lots of others.
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