Snapdragon 865: Appeared on Geekbench, and "stands up" against Apple's A12 Bionic!

The Snapdragon 865 'Kona' SoC passed for the first time since Geekbench. The device that runs it runs on Android 10 'Q' with 6GB of RAM.

ΛDetails about the upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC appeared in May. Later in June we heard that it will come in two versions called "Kona" and "Huracan". One will have a built-in X55 5G modem and the other without it.

The processor scored 4160 on the single-core test and 12946 on the multi-core test. The first result is better than the Snapdragon 855 and 855 Plus, with an average of 3600, but it did not manage to pass the Apple A12 Bionic of iPhone XS and XR which has 4700 units, nor the recent Exynos 9825 SoC of Galaxy Note10 + which reaches 4500 units.

In the second result the performance is better than the Apple A12 Bionic and Snapdragon 855 Plus which are approximately equal to 11200 while it is much better than the Exynos 9825, which reaches 10500. Apple will announce the next generation A13 SoC for 2019 iPhones next month, and probably this year will have the most powerful processor on the market. There is a chance we will see improvements in the coming months on the SD865, at which point we will again see its comparison with other premium processors.

Possible Features

Although the official announcement is a few months away, we have plenty of information that allows us to take a first look at Qualcomm's upcoming SoC. Will it bring something new or will it just give the classic annual performance upgrade? From what we will see below it will be a mix of both.

Last year we saw the integrated construction architecture drop from 10nm to 7nm as it did with the Snapdragon 855. This year the chip is not expected to shrink, but there will be a change in the way it is built, as it is almost certain that the 865 will be made by Samsung using EUV - Extreme Ultra-violet technology and not from TSMC. Qualcomm used TSMC in the 855 as the company had the facilities ready to produce large quantities of the processor. However, Samsung re-entered the game with superior technology, so the change was made without a second thought, as it will affect the production line and the performance of the integrated.

The EUV method promises an increase in performance of 20% to 30% but also an improvement of 30% to 50% in consumption. The numbers are in line with the expectations of the Snapdragon 865. The next generation ARM Cortex is expected to give a big boost. According to ARM, the Cortex-A77 offers a 20% increase in performance compared to the A76, which is located in four of the eight cores of the SD855.

The A77 is built to work with the Cortex A55 cores, which take on the lightest tasks. Of course Qualcomm will of course put its hand in the Cortex cores, creating its own Kryo for the new chipset. So inside there will be a high-end Kryo A77, three lower-end A77s and finally four A55s. We see this type of change every year, along with an increase in performance and battery life.

The change to the DDR memory type is done once every few years, which makes each upgrade a pretty big deal. And this is expected to happen with the next generation of LPDDR5. Compared to LPDDR4x which currently reaches transfer speeds of up to 4.266 Mbps, LPDDR5 will increase this number to 6.400 Mbps, a 50% increase!

This will affect almost every aspect of your phone performance: will make opening large files and heavy applications faster, games will run faster, multitasking and switching between applications will be faster. Even your camera will benefit from faster RAM, as computer photography uses your phone's hardware resources to a great extent and so complex shots like those using Night Mode will be done faster.

Combined with the new and faster UFS 3.0 storage method, LPDDR5 RAM will result in a significantly better user experience taking the reins from the new CPU.

Little is known about which GPU will be paired with the Snapdragon 865, but it is safe to say that its name will be Adreno 650 and it will bring even better gaming performance and whatever else is required.But the most interesting thing is that Qualcomm is adding support for HDR10 +, but not this HDR10 + that already supports the current chip.

The company will introduce its own standard for HDR video making things even more confusing, as the name is the same as Samsung's existing HDR10 + standard. Hopefully, once the new chip is released, the differences between the two will be clarified, but we will also find out why Qualcomm decided to develop its own technology as HDR10 + is free and open for use by any company.

5G has started to make its appearance but the coverage is still small for real use. By the middle of the end of 2020, things will logically have advanced enough for more people to consider buying a phone capable of 5G. Current rumors indicate that in order to serve this market, the Qualcomm prepares two versions of the Snapdragon 865.

One of them will have the 5G modem integrated, taking an important step towards the wider application of technology in smartphones. Currently, the Snapdragon X50 5G modem is housed on a separate chip, which takes up valuable space inside the phone and is as efficient as a built-in one.

The second generation 5G modem, Snapdragon X55, will certainly be a big leap forward as it will shrink enough to fit inside the main chip. This is definitely the next big step on the way to 5G to become a standard feature in every flagship. But as long as most countries have 5G networks available, there will be something extra that will not be useful in every market.

This is why the Snapdragon 865 will also be available without the 5G modem and possibly at a reduced price for manufacturers. So far there is no information on other differences between the two variants, but as the release approaches, we will definitely have more details. But surely the 5G model will be more energy consuming and may come with further requirements such as the need for 5G antennas.

If we take the previous years as an indication, The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chip should logically be released around December 5, 2019. This usually means that we will see the first phones with a built-in processor in early 2020.

Flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S11 will probably be some of the first smartphones to be released with the new SoC, as they are usually unveiled in late February. After that, as usual, the announcements for devices with Snapdragon 865 will start.

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