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Today, Qualcomm took the wraps of their latest chipset which sits somewhere in a no man’s of being last years tech and flagship spec.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 snapdragon follows a similar trend we have seen from both Qualcomm and MediaTek in the past couple of years. Take an old chipset, tweak it by the smallest of degrees and pass it off as something new.
MediaTek did it with various Helio chipsets, both Qualcomm and MediaTek also appear to have done custom orders for specific brands, namely Xiaomi and Realme, with the likes of the SD732 and Helio G95.
The new Snapdragon appears to be used across OEMs who are predominantly geared towards value-orientated phones. So far, they have Motorola, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO, and Xiaomi signed up to produce phones with the SD870.
What’s changed?
So, what’s changed? Not much. The spec table below covers most of it, but it is essentially a 0.1GHz bump in frequency on the Cortex A77 core taking it 3.2Ghz representing a 3.23% increase in frequency on a single core.
Timing of this announcement is convenient with MediaTek holding an announcement tomorrow for their flagship chipset, so Qualcomm are perhaps hoping to take the shine off things.
Lower Price Point?
The SD865 increased the price of flagship phones considerably last year, several phones shot well past the £1k point and even affordable brands such as Realme with their X50 Pro were not all that cheap.
The 3.2% frequency difference may not be the important bit here. If the SD870 allows phones to be sold at a new lower price point, it could be a fantastic chipset. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 offers impressive performance, but I doubt most people would notice the difference in performance it offers vs last years chipset.
Motorola Moto Edge S with SD870 confirmed to launch in China on 26th of January
Motorola was quick to announce a phone featuring this new chipset with the new Moto Edge S. Last year the Motorola Edge+ launched in the EU and US for €1,199 / $999.99.
It looks like the new phone keeps the same design, and initial leaks suggest the same battery size. So it will be interesting if much else has changed and how the price will relate to last years model.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 vs 865 Plus vs 888 Specifications Compared
[table id=336 /]
