Qualcomm packs a chip from last year in the ‘Snapdragon 870’. Last year’s SoC was the Snapdragon 865, and after that Qualcomm released the Snapdragon 865+. The Snapdragon 870 turns out to be an 865 ++. This is another clockwork.
Qualcomm has a completely impenetrable product range, so it’s hard to know if any single non-flagship SoC announcement from the company is important. However, it sounds like this chip will be picked up by some of the more interesting Android OEMs. The press release states that it will include a range of flagship devices from key customers, including Motorola, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO and Xiaomi. ‘The real flagship SoC is the Snapdragon 888, so Qualcomm’s use of’ flagship ‘here definitely belongs in scare quotes.
Like the 865, it is an eight-core 7 nm chip. The Prime Cortex A77 core is now clocked at 3.2 GHz and holds your benchmark programs as it is 3 percent faster than the 3.1 GHz Snapdragon 865+! Qualcomm says nothing, so we’ll assume all other cores are the same as the Snapdragon 865. That means three more A77 cores at 2.4 GHz and four A55 cores at 1.8 GHz. As on the 865+ model, it sounds like there’s still the option for Qualcomm’s latest connectivity chip, giving you the option of an 870 with Wi-Fi 6E.
The Snapdragon 870 is not only similar to the 865 – Qualcomm describes it as ‘building on the success of Snapdragon 865 and 865 Plus’, indicating that it’s still a simple clock with no design changes. The 865+ and 870 datasheets also look identical. If it’s exactly the same disc, it’s a strange decision, since the Snapdragon 865 SoC design was a stopgap design. It was created to drive 5G to consumers as fast as possible, and it comes with the 4G / 5G modem on a separate chip. Since the 865 was a large, expensive two-chip solution, you’d think Qualcomm would let it die as soon as possible. Assuming the previous generation chips were dead, the 870 is now the only chip in Qualcomm’s modern range that includes a 4G and 5G modem on a separate chip. Every SoC of the more expensive Qualcomm smartphones has a 4G / 5G modem on board, and every SoC that is cheaper has a modem on board. Heck, 5G on board now goes all the way to the Snapdragon 4 Series.
The upcoming OnePlus 9 Lite, a phone that was supposed to stand behind the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro, was supposed to come with the Snapdragon 865, but now there some speculation that it would rather come with this “Snapdragon 870”. In the land of marketing logic, I think Qualcomm’s new model number will stop casual observers from thinking it’s last year’s chip ‘. Unfortunately for Qualcomm, marketing can not be here.
As for the timing, Qualcomm says “It is expected that commercial devices based on Snapdragon 870 will be announced in the first quarter of 2021.”