Qualcomm Announces The Snapdragon 855 SoC With 5G Support
In the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2018 which started yesterday, Qualcomm officially announced its next flagship processor, the Snapdragon 855. The Snapdragon 855 is the successor to the highly popular Snapdragon 845, which is found on almost all the Android flagship devices from 2018. The new 855 is manufactured using the 7nm process, which offers better battery life and improved performance. Along with the chipset, Qualcomm also announced the Snapdragon Elite Gaming platform and the 3D Sonic Sensor.
The 855
Contrary to earlier reports, the chipset bears the 855 title and not the 8150 title. Although, previous reports were not inaccurate as the 8150 was the internal name of the mobile platform. The chipset is manufactured using the 7 nm process which is the new standard for flagship processors now. The Hisilicon Kirin 980 by Huawei and the A12 Bionic by Apple are 7nm chipsets have already entered production and are featured in the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the new lineup of iPhones respectively.
The 855 is also 5G ready and is compatible with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 modem, in order to do so. 5G technology is almost here and many countries and companies are actively testing their 5G devices and networks. It is safe to say that 2019 will be the year of 5G devices. However, the rollout will be slow and countries like India might get proper 5G infrastructure only towards the end of 2019.
Additionally, Qualcomm also said that the Snapdragon 855 features their fourth-generation multi-core AI engine. This offers up to 3 times the AI performance when compared to the Snapdragon 845. The 855 also features the world’s first Computer Vision Image Signal Processor (CV-ISP). This will offer new features in terms of photo and video capture. The 855 also features the Snapdragon elite Gaming platform , which will offer a new set of features to enhance the mobile gaming experience. 
What’s More
At the event, the company also announced the Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor. This is an ultrasonic in-display fingerprint sensor. Until now, all the smartphones featuring an in-display fingerprint sensor, use an optical sensor. The ultrasonic sensor uses ultrasonic waves to authenticate the fingerprint. Compared to optical sensors, this is much more secure and can even work while in contact with oil, dirt and water.
Also Read : World’s Most Powerful GPU, Nvidia TITAN RTX Announced
This is not all, Qualcomm will reveal more features of the Snapdragon 855 as the summit progresses. However, we have already gotten a taste of haw the new flagship processor from Qualcomm is about. It offers improved AI, camera and gaming performance and brings improvements to connectivity and security. Performance upgrades are also expected to be announced during the second day of the summit.
