Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus with faster clock speeds and improved performance officially launched | Digit

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus has officially launched as a slight upgrade to the Snapdragon 888 processor that we saw on nearly every major flagship phone in the past six months. The Snapdragon 888 was launched back in December 2020 and has been powering flagship experiences on phones such as the Asus ROG Phone 5, Mi 11 Ultra, Mi 11X Pro, OnePlus 9 Pro, Vivo X60 Pro+ and more. The Snapdragon 888 Plus will be seen on phones in the second half of 2021 from companies like Xiaomi, Asus, Motorola and more.

“Snapdragon is synonymous with premium Android experiences. Our latest flagship Snapdragon 888 Plus 5G Mobile Platform will help deliver the premium entertainment, connectivity, and gaming experiences users deserve. We’re excited to see OEMs launch with products based on our highest performing platform,” said Christopher Patrick, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Mobile Handset Business, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus: What’s new?

The major change from Snapdragon 888 to Snapdragon 888 Plus is that the latter has been designed with a slightly higher clock speed of the Prime core. The prime core on the Snapdragon 888 Plus is clocked at 2.995GHz up from 2.84GHz prime clock speed on the Snapdragon 888. The Kryo 680 CPU on the 888 Plus is capable of going up to 3.0GHz giving it a boost in raw performance. 

Qualcomm has also upgraded the sixth-generation AI engine with over 20 per cent performance gains. Previously on the Snapdragon 888, the AI engine was able to drive the Hexagon 780 processor at 26 TOPS (tera operations per second) and the Snapdragon 888 Plus upgrades it to 32 TOPS which means significant improvements in AI-based experiences.

Apart from these upgrades, the rest of the features of the Snapdragon 888 Plus remains the same as the Snapdragon 888. This includes the Adreno 660 GPU, third-generation Snapdragon X60 5G modem, Spectra 580 ISP and Snapdragon Elite gaming features and more.

Smartphone makers including Asus, Honor, Motorola, Vivo and Xiaomi have confirmed that they will launch Snapdragon 888 Plus powered phones in the third quarter of 2021.