On the back of Intel and AMD unveiling plans for new processing units for the year ahead, comes news that Qualcomm has a successor to last year’s Snapdragon 865 processor due fore release, the Snapdragon 870 (as detailed by The Verge). Yes, their number system is confusing – don’t try to figure it out. Rather than a big next-gen step forward (this is the role of the already announced Snapdragon 888), the 870 offers only substantial improvements over the previous hardware.
The 870 features the same design as the 865, including the Kryo 585 CPU and Adreno 650 GPU core, although is clocked at 3.2GHz, which is about 10 percent faster than the 865’s 2.84GHz. That is quicker, but not necessarily fast enough for many to warrant an upgrade over.
The reason that the company has created this new chip though is in response to market demands for affordable and powerful processing technology. While there is a market for high-end powerful processors, the majority of people and manufacturers these days are looking to offer value for money in cheaper phones. Qualcomm is instead looking to offer a chip that provides a high level of performance and is still a “new” processor but will be significantly cheaper to manufacture given that it is based on a pre-existing design.
The company revealed that the 870 will be featured in new phones from Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, and Xiaomi this quarter. It’s not exactly exciting news from the company but given how I myself prefer value in a mobile device and never go for the high-end models, it’s a strategy that makes sense for them.
Last Updated: January 21, 2021
