If you like Android phones, the Snapdragon 898 (or Snapdragon 895, as it’s also known) is a big deal, as it’ll almost certainly power many of the best Android phones in 2022.
It’s the successor to Qualcomm‘s Snapdragon 888, which can be found in devices like the OnePlus 9 and US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S21, and it’s expected to be the best Qualcomm smartphone chipset for at least the first half of 2022. (with a Snapdragon 898 Plus possibly landing towards the end of the year based on past form).
As a result, it will most likely be the best chipset used in Android phones, as rival chipsets from Mediatek and Exynos aren’t typically as good.
Everything we know about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 898 is listed below, including when it will most likely be released and which phones it will most likely be found in.
Release date
Photo credit: Mahesh Pindaria | Twitter: @maheshpindaria
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 898 is expected to be announced on November 30, as that is the start date of Qualcomm’s two-day Snapdragon Tech Summit, and Qualcomm has a history of announcing new flagship chipsets at this event, including the Snapdragon 888 in 2020.
However, since Qualcomm hasn’t confirmed the Snapdragon 898’s arrival in the United States, we can’t be certain.
Of course, depending on when the Snapdragon 898 is announced, you may have to wait a little longer for it to be included in a phone. However, the first Snapdragon 898 phones are expected to be unveiled before the end of 2021, so there shouldn’t be too much of a wait.
Latest news and leaks
The majority of the Snapdragon 898 news and leaks have focused on the phones that it could be used in, which we’ll discuss further down, but an early benchmark has revealed some details about the chipset itself.
On Twitter, leaker Abhishek Yadav shared what appears to be a Geekbench listing for the chipset, revealing that it has an Adreno 730 GPU and eight cores, including a powerful Cortex-X2 core running at 2.42GHz, three 2.17GHz Cortex-A710 cores, and four 1.79GHz Cortex-A510 cores for power efficiency.
However, an earlier leak from Digital Chat Station suggested an even faster 3.09GHz main core, as well as 2.4GHz middle cores and 1.8GHz efficiency cores, allowing for a 20 percent performance boost over the Snapdragon 888. As a result, it’s possible that the benchmark is incorrect or does not accurately reflect the Snapdragon 898’s capabilities.
Ice Universe, a leaker, has posted benchmark scores indicating a 15% boost in performance, and another leak indicates cores running at 3GHz, 2.5GHz, and 1.79GHz.
So the leaked figures differ slightly, but aside from that first benchmark, they’re all in the same ballpark. Given that most sources suggest a top clock speed of around 3GHz, we’ll assume that’s correct.
The Snapdragon 898 is also expected to be built on a 4nm manufacturing process, which is an improvement over the Snapdragon 888’s 5nm process, implying that Qualcomm will be able to make it more powerful and efficient without significantly increasing its size.
Which phones will be equipped with the Snapdragon 898?
The Snapdragon 898 is expected to be used in a large number of phones, many of which have already been rumored. The Samsung Galaxy S22 series, for example, is expected to use this chipset in either most or all of the world.
Normally, Samsung divides its Galaxy S models between the latest Snapdragon and the latest Exynos processors.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 series is expected to launch in February, but the Snapdragon 898 could debut in the Xiaomi 12 in December.
According to a leak, a Motorola phone could be one of the first to use the Snapdragon 898, possibly launching before the end of 2021. The phone was not named in that leak, but another leaker recently claimed that the high-end Motorola Edge 30 Ultra will be released this year with that chipset.
This chipset may also be used in the Huawei P60 series. That’s a little surprising given Huawei’s history of developing its own chipsets, but the US trade embargo has complicated matters. Finally, the Snapdragon 898 appears to have been used in at least one Vivo phone.
Aside from leaks and rumors, we expect the OnePlus 10 and Sony Xperia 1 IV, as well as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4, Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4, and a slew of other phones, to use this chipset.
In other words, if you buy a high-end Android smartphone in 2022, the Snapdragon 898 is likely to be at its heart.
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