Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC Explained In Detail: Everything You Need To Know

At the Tech Summit 2019, Qualcomm has officially unveiled its latest 5G capable mobile processors -- the Snapdragon 865, Snapdragon 765, and the Snapdragon 765G 5G, all based on 7nm manufacturing process. The Snapdragon 865 is the flagship offering from the company that is likely to power a plethora of smartphones that will launch in 2020.

Technical Specifications Of The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC

Compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, the Snapdragon 865 now offers up to 25 percent improved CPU performance with the help of Kryo 585 CPU architecture. Similarly, the Adreno 650 GPU offers over 25 percent graphics performance boost compared to the Adreno 640 GPU.

This is an octa-core processor with a single high-performance core (Kryo 585 Prime) based on Cortex A-77 that runs at 2.84GHz. There are three more medium performance cores, again, based on Cortex A-77 that runs at 2.42GHz. Lastly, the four efficient cores based on Cortex A-55 architecture with a maximum clock speed of 1.80GHz.

The Adreno 650 now supports OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.1, OpenCL 2.0 FP, DX12, Volumetric VR video playback, and is also capable of 8K 360 VR video playback. The chipset natively supports Dolby Vision, H.265 (HEVC) and HDR10+ with additional codecs like HLG, HDR10, H.264 (AVC), VP8, VP9.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 does not have a built-in modem. Instead, it supports the External Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G modem-RF system. This is the latest 5G modem from Qualcomm that offers up to 7.2Gbps download and 3Gbps upload speeds. The modem is compatible with 5G technologies like 5G mmWave: 800 MHz bandwidth, 5G sub-6 GHz specs: 200 MHz bandwidth, 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO, and 4×4 MIMO.

Additionally, the Snapdragon 865 supports Wi-Fi 802.11ax or Wi-Fi 6 with 802.11/n and 802.11/ac. It also supports a plethora of navigation systems like GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, Dual-frequency GNSS, GNSS, QZSS, and SBAS.

As per the image processing, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 can now handle up to 200MP resolution images via the Snapdragon Spectra 480 Image Sensor Processor which is a 14-bit ISP. The chipset is capable of recording 4K videos and shooting 64MP images simultaneously. Natively, it can record 8K videos @30fps or 4K videos @120fps, and slow-motion videos @960fps.

The Snapdragon 865 is also the first commercial smartphone chipset to support LPDDR5 RAM at 2750MHz and 4x16bit memory with an overall data transfer speed of 44GB/s. Similarly, it is also compatible with LPDDR4X type memory, then offers an overall data transfer speed of 33.4GB/s. Lastly, the chipset supports USB 3.1 standards via USB-C and is capable of Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology powered by Quick Charge AI.

Smartphones Powered By The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC

As of now, Xiaomi, Motorola, Oppo, ZTE have already confirmed to launch a Snapdragon 865 SoC powered phones in Q1 2020. We can also expect to see brands like Samsung, OnePlus, and Realme to launch phones based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 SoC.