Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 vs Snapdragon 865 vs Snapdragon 888: Flagship Chips Compared

Jan. 20, 2021

Snapdragon 870 vs Snapdragon 865 vs Snapdragon 888 Chipset: Specs Comparison

If you’re wondering how the Snapdragon 870 5G fits into Qualcomm’s flagship chipset lineup then you can check out our in-depth specs comparison and find out yourself:

As you can see in the table above, the Snapdragon 870 5G brings minor improvements over the Snapdragon 865 chipset. It is manufactured on a 7nm process node, includes the Adreno 650 GPU, Hexagon 698 DSP, Quick Charge 4.0+ support, and more — the same as its predecessor.

The Snapdragon 888 5G chipset is still ahead in terms of raw performance and power efficiency. It is based on a newer 5nm process node, supports the ARM Cortex-X1 core,Quick Charge 5(for up to 100W charging speeds), and Wi-Fi 6E support in tow. Now, this begs us to question – why did Qualcomm launch the Snapdragon 870 chipset?

This is possibly the first time Qualcomm has refreshed an older-gen Snapdragon 800-series chipset and given it a minor boost to make it look new. The Snapdragon 870 5G chipset has launched to give consumers the impression that Qualcomm has brought a new budget flagship chipset in the market. It comfortably sits between the Snapdragon 765G 5G and Snapdragon 888 5G.

Snapdragon 870 offers a meager 0.1GHz boost in clock speed in comparison to last year’s Snapdragon 865+ chipset.

Currently, there are three companies that are expected to launch Snapdragon 870 5G phones in the coming weeks. This includes Motorola, Xiaomi, and OnePlus, as per the rumors making rounds on the Internet. Read on to find out more details about these phones:

Motorola has alreadyconfirmedthat it will unveil theMotorola Edge S(codenamed Nio for global markets) powered by Snapdragon 870 in China on 26th January. It will feature a dual-camera punch-hole cutout for selfies, quad rear-cameras, side-mounted fingerprint sensor, and more.

Though the Redmi K40 series isconfirmed to arrive with the Snapdragon 888 chipsetin tow, the rumor mill suggests that there will be another model with the Snapdragon 870 chipset under the hood. This leakcomes fromreliable tipster Digital Chat Station and it mentioned an‘unreleased sub-flagship processor,’which has been unveiled by Qualcomm today.

Last but not least, the rumors ofOnePlus 9 Litelaunching alongside the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro have been around for a long time now. We assumed it will arrive with last year’s Snapdragon 865 or 865+ chipset in tow. But, Qualcomm has confirmed that OnePlus is also working on a device with the Snapdragon 870 under the hood.