Qualcomm Announces Top-end Snapdragon 855+ Along With Low-end 215 Series

Qualcomm has been keeping busy this summer so far, having announced multiple SoCs that will target future smartphones. Perhaps most interesting to performance lovers is the new Snapdragon 855+, an iteration on the original 855 that sees clock boosts hit both the CPU and GPU, delivering better gaming performance overall, and perhaps even better responsiveness.

The 855 is already a very powerful chip, and the reality is, 855+ is just a clock boost, so anyone owning a phone with 855 inside shouldn’t worry in the least. But, those looking for the “ultimate” in gaming performance would definitely want to keep it in mind – at least, when phones become available. With IFA coming up in September, we can probably expect to see 855+ phones announced there.

Qualcomm talking about Elite Gaming at its third-annual Tech Summit

As before, the 855+ supports gaming features like Jank Reducer, Fast Loader, and AntiCheat Extensions, and should the AI bug ever bite, the chip also offers super-strong performance there (though it seems to be a hard thing to quantify on mobile right now).

Catering more to the opposite end of the market, Qualcomm also recently announced its Snapdragon 215 series which “raises the bar” for mainstream audiences. Clearly, the numbering alone in this model tells you where it’s targeted, and that’s the lower-end part of the market where phones tend to cost around $100, or perhaps up to $150. Still, there’s some good stuff to glean here.

For starters, this is the first chip of this price-point where Qualcomm is able to offer pure 64-bit support. That will hopefully amount to RAM boosts in these devices, as costs have come down over the years. The chip sports four Cortex-A53 cores, and while clock speeds don’t seem to be mentioned anywhere, the company promises speed-ups of up to 50% over the last gen.

Also equipped in the 215-series is the Adreno 308 GPU, with that and other chips working in tandem to deliver an efficient, fast overall experience. Because of the various improvements, 215-equipped phones will now be able to support dual cameras – a boon for photo lovers. Because of the target price-points, though, the main thing lacking will be screen resolution – don’t expect to see 1080p on these devices.

Again, IFA is in September, so we might see a bunch of phones that use the 215-series announced there – if not before, since that is still two months off.