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Snapdragon releases a new top-of-the-line processor under their 800 series every year. Last year, it was the Snapdragon 865 that is already running in several flagship phones. Now, they have launched their next flagship processor, the Snapdragon 888, at its annual tech summit in 2020. Several smartphone manufacturers have confirmed their plans to introduce Snapdragon 888-powered phones in the coming months. Major brands like Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, ASUS, Black Shark, Nubia, Realme, OPPO, Vivo, etc., have announced next-generation Qualcomm 888 flagship chipset phones. So, what are these devices? Let’s find out.
Here is the list of Snapdragon 888-powered phones
May 12: Asus has announced Zenfone 8 and Zenfone 8 Flip smartphones with Qualcomm’s flagship chipset. The vanilla Zenfone 8 packs a 5.9-inch 120Hz E4 AMOLED screen, while the Flip version packs a 6.67-inch Full HD+ 90Hz Samsung AMOLED screen. Both phones run Android 11 with Zen UI on top. The Zenfone 8 and 8 Flip are powered by a 4000 mAh and a 5000 mAh battery, respectively, with support for 30W fast charging.
March 11: Asus’s next-generation gaming phone, “Asus ROG Phone 5,” and Oppo’s flagship device, “Find X3 Pro,” have arrived in the market with an SD888 chipset.
March 4: Realme has announced its flagship phone of the year in China, dubbed the Realme GT 5G. We see a Snapdragon 888 chipset, a 120Hz refresh rate display, a 6.43-inch S-AMOLED E4 panel, 64MP triple cameras, and 65W fast charging technology.
March 4: Nubia Red Magic 6 Series, which consists of Red Magic 6 and Red Magic 6 Pro, goes official with a 165Hz display, Snapdragon 888, Mecha Sci-Fi design, and Red Magic OS 4 (Android 11).
March 3: Meizu has unveiled its latest 18 series of Smartphones in China. The series includes Meizu 18 and Meizu 18 Pro. Both phones run Snapdragon 888 chipset with support for a 5G network and offer up to 12GB of RAM with UFS 3.1 storage.
February 25: Xiaomi’s Redmi K40 Pro and K40 Pro+ with Snapdragon 888 SoC, 6.67-inch E4 AMOLED display, Android 11-based MIUI 12 custom skin, and a 4,520mAh battery arrived in China.
January 21: Vivo has launched its flagship device, dubbed the Vivo X60 Pro+ with SD888 SoC. It is paired with 8GB or 12GB of LPDDR5 RAM with Memory Fusion Technology. The phone has a 120Hz refresh rate display with 240Hz touch sampling rate support.
January 14: The Galaxy S21 family comprises Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+ and Galaxy S21 Ultra. They all come with Qualcomm’s flagship chipset and an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate.
January 11: iQOO has also introduced the Snapdragon 888 SoC powered device “iQOO 7” in China. It comes in three color options: Black, Latent Blue, and Legendary BMW Edition. Other features include a 120Hz AMOLED display, HDR 10+, Monster Beat Dual Stereo Speakers, Multi-Turbo 5.0, GVoice optimization technology, and more.
December 28: Xiaomi has launched its latest flagship smartphone, Mi 11, in China. Xiaomi Mi 11 is the first smartphone in the world to pack with Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 888 chipset. It sports a QHD+ AMOLED 120Hz display, a 108MP primary camera, a 20MP selfie camera, and a 4,600 mAh battery.
So that is all we have so far about Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 phones. If anything new surfaces online, we will surely update the information on this article again.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Processor Features
1. Kryo 680 CPUs and Adreno 660 GPU
It is built on 5nm process technology from Samsung. As for the cores of the SD888 processor, we see a custom Kryo 680 CPU, which is built on ARM’s X1 Cortex along with Adreno 660 GPU. Also, the chipset uses a 1+3+4 core arrangement. Talking about core frequency, the SD888 SoC packs one Cortex-X1 powerful core with a clock speed of 2.84 GHz, three Cortex-A78 cores at 2.42 GHz, and the remaining four Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8 GHz for efficiency.
2. Triple Image Signal Processor (Spectra 580 ISP)
The Snapdragon 888 has the all-new Spectra 580 ISP with a triple Image Signalling Processor (ISP), which is capable of capturing from three cameras at the same time. The feature has multiple uses. For starters, it can handle three 4K HDR video streams simultaneously, or you can click three 28MP pics simultaneously. The new Spectra has processing speeds up to 2.7 gigapixels per second, which is 35% faster. The ISP brings new low-light features for brighter pics even in dark areas.
The Spectra 580 is designed for image sensors called the Staggered HDR. It will enhance HDR video quality. Moreover, it will separate long, medium, and short exposures and merge them into one to give you a final crispy image with the help of Spectra 580s triple ISP feature. Earlier, it was available only for ideas, but now Snapdaron will allow you to capture 4K HDR with computational HDR. The SD888 can record 10-bit HDR photos in the HEIF image format.
3. 4K Video Capture at 120 FPS
For videos, you can record and play 4K videos at 120fps, and interestingly, the chip can snap 120 photos a second at 12MP resolution. The SD888 can support Up to 28 MP triple camera, Up to 64MP dual camera, Up to 84 MP single camera with ZSL, and Up to 200MP single camera.
4. Integrated 3rd generation Snapdragon X60 5G modem
The first-ever chipset to use the X60 5G modem and is integrated into the chip. It will have download speeds up to 7.5 Gbps and upload speeds up to 3Gbps. This third-generation modem supports the sub-6 and mmWave. The Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System features Wi-Fi 6 and 6E (6GHz capacity). Qualcomm claims it is the fastest mobile Wi-Fi, delivering up to 3.6 Gbps speeds. The 6E will allow you to stream games from a local PC since it provides low latency. The chipset allows 5G in the first slot and 5G/4G/3G/2G in the second slot, giving you dual 5G support.
Bluetooth 5.2 with dual antennas is also supported, plus the aptX suite of high-quality, low-latency wireless audio tech. Also, it will support USB 3.1 and USB-C.
5. 6th generation AI Engine with Hexagon 780
The Snapdragon 888 packs a 6th-generation AI engine with a boosted Hexagon 780 processor. It offers 26 TOPS (Tera operations per second), making it the highest AI engine TOPS in any mobile device. The power efficiency is hugely improved.
They have also enhanced the Sensing Hub, reducing power usage as well. It can now even operate under one milliamp. Around 80% of simple AI tasks can be handled by the Sensing hub. Also, they have introduced a new AI software.
6. Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 technology
For charging, the Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 technology can handle 100W+ without any heat dissipation. It is compatible with USB Power Delivery and backward compatible with previous QC generations returning to 2.0.
