Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 865 Plus chipset focuses on 5G and gaming features

The next chipset for the second half of 2020 coming from Qualcomm is, you guessed it, the Snapdragon 865 Plus 5G. The new mobile platform popped up recently in various benchmarks, so we kind of knew it was coming, just didn't know when exactly.

The sequel to the Snapdragon 865 chipset is meant to further expand 5G support to even more devices in the months to come, but it's also a big opportunity for Qualcomm to boost performance across the board for better gameplay and fast Snapdragon Elite Gaming experiences.

Specs-wise, the Snapdragon 865 Plus features Qualcomm's X55 5G modem that enables global 5G (supports all key regions and frequency bands including mmWave, sub-6, TDD, FDD and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing). Also, Qualcomm promises “desktop-quality gaming” thanks to the Snapdragon Elite Gaming premium features like updatable GPU drivers, ultra-smooth 5G gameplay at 144fps, and True 10-bit HDR gaming.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 865 Plus 5G offers a couple of improvements over the current top-tier chipset, such as the Qualcomm Kryo 585 Prime processor core clocked at up to 3.1GHz (10 percent increase), the Adreno 650 GPU (10 percent faster graphics rendering), and Fast Connect 6900 compatibility (Wi-Fi speeds of up to 3.6 Gbps).

From what Qualcomm revealed today, it looks like the company's new SoC (system-on-chip) mainly focuses on two aspects: 5G connectivity and gaming features. As far as availability goes, the first phones packing the new Snapdragon 865 Plus 5G chipset should be announced in Q3 2020, but Qualcomm has already revealed two of those: Lenovo Legion and Asus ROG Phone 3.