Qualcomm introduced its Snapdragon 865 as the world's most advanced chip for flagship 5G smartphones, adding that it would be rolled out in premium phones from many of the world's largest vendors starting in 2020. But the chip is not actually capable of connecting to 5G networks alone. That contrasts with the company's latest line of chips for mid-range devices, the the Snapdragon 765, which includes all of the critical components for 5G.
Qualcomm said it integrated the 5G cellular modem with central processor cores and other components on the same slab of silicon for the first time, looking to curb the premium price of 5G smartphones and speed the rollout of 5G networks around the world. Current models that separate out 5G baseband and core processors cost more than $1,000. The mid-range Snapdragon chip is designed to bring 5G modems to smartphones that cost less than $500.
The Snapdragon 865 chip is paired with Qualcomm's X55 modem—which industry analysts call the world's most advanced discrete 5G modem—to actually access the new networks. The X55 modem delivers data transfers up to 7.5 Gbps, the company said. The Snapdragon 765 includes the X52 cellular modem to support data speeds of up to 3.7 Gbps and uploads up to 1.6 Gbps. Both chips have the X24 modem to access 4G networks at up to 1.2 Gbps.
Both X52 and X55 modems support all of the frequency bands being used in 5G networks, ranging from the 600 MHz to 6 GHz bands tapped in China, Europe and other locales to the millimeter waves favored in the U.S. Other vendors including China's HiSilicon and Taiwan's Mediatek are capable of crafting 5G modems that work with the sub-6 GHz bands, but not millimeter waves, which can even be deflected and muddled by holding your smartphone.
Qualcomm, long the world's largest vendor of cellular modems and other components used in smartphones, is looking to expand its early dominance in the 5G market. By bundling the 5G modem with its popular mid-range processors, the San Diego, California-based company is signaling a strong year ahead for 5G phones, which it hopes would restore stagnant sales growth. Qualcomm said the new chip will launch in products in the first quarter of 2020.
Steve Mollenkopf, the company's chief executive, said on an earnings call last month that deployments of 5G networks are outpacing 4G. He said that more than 30 operators are building out 5G networks around the world, while more than 40 electronics manufacturers are preparing to push out 5G devices, doubling year-over-year. "Looking forward, we expect 5G to launch in all regions, within the next two years to three years," Mollenkopf said.
Qualcomm said selling more affordable chips will speed up the rollout of 5G. Last month, the San Diego, California-based company gave its first forecast for global 5G smartphone shipments of between 175 million to 225 million in 2020, as more high-end and mid-range models hit the market in the first half of the year, up from tens of millions of units in 2019. Shipment totals are forecast to be more than 450 million in 2021 and 750 million in 2022.
Last year, Qualcomm started selling its first 5G modems for flagship phones rolled out by Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, LG Electronics and others. The high-end handsets are designed around separate slabs of silicon—the Snapdragon 855, the predecessor to the Snapdragon 865, and the X55 5G modem—and are sold at premium prices. Samsung rolled out its new 5G smartphone for $1,300, or 40% more than the price of the base model supporting 4G.
Qualcomm said it would integrate 5G modems in its budget and mid-range Snapdragon 6 series and 7 series chips in the first half of 2020. The company also said it hopes to include integrated 5G modems in its premium 8-series chips by the second half of that year so that they can be used in smaller, cheaper 5G smartphones with longer battery life. Separating out the modem tends to add to the cost, power consumption, and footprint of a device.
The Snapdragon 765 is based on the Kyro 475 CPU, which offers performance ahead of the Snapdragon 730 but behind the Snapdragon 865. The eight-core processor comes with one Cortex-A76 core clocked at 2.3 GHz and another Cortex-A76 core running at clock speeds up to 2.2 GHz. The remaining Cortex-A55 cores offer higher energy efficiency while running at 1.8 GHz. That results not only in more balanced performance but also boosted battery life.
The chip also incorporates the Adreno 620 GPU, which pumps out 20% more performance than the Snapdragon 730. Qualcomm also rolled out a gaming smartphone chip called the Snapdragon 765G that improves the performance of the Adreno GPU by 10% compared to the standard Snapdragon 765, resulting in more enhanced details, lusher colors and faster load times. The Snapdragon 765G increases the clock speed of the Kryo CPUs to 2.4 GHz.
The Hexagon 690 cores that act as the artificial intelligence engine can run through more than 5 trillion operations per second while the Snapdragon 865 is capable of carrying out AI chores with 15 trillion operations per second. The Spectra 355 ISP can be connected to cameras with telephoto, wide, or ultra-wide lenses. The Spectra ISP can also be linked to the Hexagon AI engine to detect and upgrade image backgrounds in real time, Qualcomm said.
Qualcomm also rolled out modules based on the Snapdragon 865 and 765 to help curb the development time for engineering departments struggling to work with 5G. The pre-tested modules merge all the core components for coupling smartphones to 5G networks, ranging from the cellular modem to the radio frequency front end to the antennas. Qualcomm said the move makes it cheaper for customers to churn out 5G smartphones faster than today.
“We expect 5G to be the fastest cellular transition in history," Alex Katouzian, Qualcomm's senior vice president and general manager of mobile, said in a statement. "Our expanded portfolio including the Snapdragon 765 and 765G has the potential to make 5G accessible to billions of smartphone users around the world." The company estimates that more than 2.2 billion users could upgrade to 5G devices based on Snapdragon 7 and 6 series SoCs.