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Qualcomm is hard at work on its next-gen flagship smartphone SoC which could arrive as the Snapdragon 898 later this year. Rumors around it have been circulating for some time now, revealing some of the key details. The latest piece of information comes from the well-known Chinese leaker Digital Chat Station who claims that the Snapdragon 898 (part number SM8450) will be fabricated on Samsung’s 4nm process node. The tipster further claims that the new chipset will boast an impressive 20 percent performance boost over its predecessor.
The source posted this information on the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo. It suggests the results are from an early sample test of the new platform. The chipset is apparently getting a bit too hot during tests but it shouldn’t be anything to worry about. Qualcomm likely has yet to work on the thermal management department for the new chip. It could be focusing on performance improvement first up. There’s every possibility that the performance gain will increase further, or even drop a bit, by the time the company reaches the production stage.
The new report, or should we say leak, doesn’t reveal anything else about the upcoming Qualcomm processor. To be fair, we already know that Samsung will manufacture the chipset using its 4nm fabrication process. Rumors also have it that there will be a Snapdragon 898+ next year and Taiwanese firm TSMC will manufacture it. But, for now, the focus is on the Snapdragon 898.
Snapdragon 898 rumored specs
We are expecting the new Qualcomm processor to use the latest v9 CPU cores that ARM announced in May this year: Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710, and Cortex-A510. According to ARM, the Cortex-X2 brings about a 16 percent performance boost over the Cortex-X1. The Snapdragon 888 and 888+ both use the latter and are clocked at 2.84GHz and 3.0GHz respectively. An earlier leak said the Snapdragon 898+ to be operating at a maximum frequency of 3.09GHz. So that’s quite an upgrade.
The new chipset will reportedly feature a 1+3+2+2 CPU cluster. Along with the Cortex-X2 super core, we will likely get three Cortex-A710 cores, two higher-clocked Cortex-A510 cores, and two more Cortex-A510 cores at a lower clock speed. This should allow for more efficient handling of tasks, resulting in improved battery life on devices.
You can also expect the Snapdragon 898 to bring improvements in other areas such as camera, AI, and GPU. We will likely hear more about it in the coming months as Qualcomm progresses with its development.