Snapdragon 865 vs Snapdragon 855 Comparison: What’s the Difference?

Ever since the launch of Snapdragon 855, Qualcomm has been working to develop the next-generation flagship processor. Now, Qualcomm has unveiled its flagship mobile platform at the Annual Tech Summit, dubbed Snapdragon 865, especially considering Qualcomm’s naming procedure from 835 to 845, 845 to 855 & 855+. For flagship Snapdragon 865-powered phones in 2020, Qualcomm brings major upgrades over its predecessor in terms of Modem, CPU, GPU, AI, DSP, ISP, and more. The company has also introduced two chipsets, Snapdragon 765 & 765G, for premium mid-range 5G phones. Here, we have discussed similarities, differences, and benchmarks between Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 855.

Snapdragon 865 Vs Snapdragon 855

Here’s the specifications comparison table to find out their differences.

CPU

Snapdragon 865 comes with an octa-core CPU with a single primary ARM Cortex A77 core based on Kryo 585 assigned to run at 2.84GHz for high performance. The remaining cores include three ARM Cortex A77 cores based on Kryo 585 running at 2.42GHz for mid-performance and four Cortex A55 cores based on Kryo 385 with 1.8GHz clock speed for low power usage. On the other hand, Snapdragon 855’s single ARM Cortex A76 prime core can clock up to 2.84GHz. This prime core comes along with three ARM Cortex A76 cores clocking up to 2.42GHz for mid-performance, and four power-efficient Cortex A55 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. This gives the Snapdragon 865 a multi-core performance boost of 25% over the Snapdragon 855. We have seen a 25% improvement in performance because of the newly added ARM Cortex-A77 core.

GPU

For graphics-intensive tasks in Snapdragon 865, we have the latest Adreno 650 that offers 20% faster graphics rendering over the Adreno 640 in last year’s Snapdragon 855. For a better gaming experience, we have Snapdragon Elite Gaming Suit on both 865 and 855. But for Snpadrgaon 865, Qualcomm has included five new features on its Elite Gaming Suit; these are Desktop Forward Rendering, Snapdragon Game Performance Engine, Game Color Plus, Adreno HDR Fast Blend and updatable GPU drivers.

Manufacturing Process

Snapdragon 865 is built on a TSMC-improved 7nm “N7P” node, which is the same process used by Apple’s A13 Bionic chip, whereas Snapdragon 865 is manufactured using TSMC’s first-generation 7nm “N7” mode. This allows 865 to be more power-efficient than the previous 855.

Display

This year, we have seen 90hz & 120Hz display refresh rate phones. But, in 2020, we may see 144Hz display phones. Yes, you heard it right. The latest Snapdragon 865 SoC with Adreno 650 is capable of pushing QHD+ 144Hz display (or UHD 60Hz). On the other hand, Snapdragon 855 comes with maximum on-device display support of 4K Ultra HD and external display support of 4K Ultra HD. Both Chipsets support HDR10+, which is the improved version of HDR10.

Camera

The Spectra 480 ISP on Snapdragon 865 has made improvements to the camera performance, and it can process images up to 200MP (or 64MP ZSL) in size. The “Gigapixel speed” of the Spectra 480 ISP allows the capturing of  64MP burst images and 4K HDR video simultaneously. On the other hand, Qualcomm Spectra 380 image signal processor on 855 supports up to 192MP cameras (or 48MP with zero shutter lag).

AI Engine

Snapdragon 865 comes with a 5th generation AI engine, which is as much as twice as powerful as the Snapdragon 855’s 4th generation AI engine. The 865 SoC manages 15 TOPS (trillions of operations), while the 855 SoC manages only 7 TOPS. The biggest improvement in the 5th generation AI engine might be for Hexagon 698 DSP, which comes with Hexagon Vector eXtensions and the new Hexagon Tensor Accelerator.

Memory

For the Snapdragon 865, we have support for LPDDR5 memory at up to 2750MHz for RAM, better than the current Snapdragon 855’s LPDDR4 2133MHz RAM support. Agaregardings of internal storage, both SoCs support UFS 3.0 storage for faster read and write speeds.

5G Modem

Like last year’s Snapdragon 855 SoC, the latest chipset 865 also uses the external 5G modem. We were expecting an integrated 5G modem. However, Qualcomm has unveiled a 765 & 765G processor with a built-in 5G modem, which gives an advantage over the 865 in case of lower power consumption.

The external X55 modem on Snapdragon 865 is the multimode solution for 4G LTE and 5G Smartphones. It also supports dual-mode SA/NSA 5G network and Dual SIM 5G technology. The X55 modem offers a download speed of 7Gbps and a Upload speed of 3Gbps over the 5G network. On the other hand, the X50 5G modem on Snapdragon 855 is only built for 5G connectivity; manufacturers need a separate X24 LTE modem to enable 4G connectivity. The X24 LTE modem can provide 2Gbps download speed, and 316Mbps upload speed over LTE Cat 20, while the X50 5G modem offers 5Gbps upload speed and supports only the NSA network.

Benchmark Tests