Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 vs. Snapdragon 888 Plus: What's the difference?

The Snapdragon 888 Plus doesn't differ too much to the Snapdragon 888, and that's a good thing.

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 888 Plus, with the chipset set to power the best Android phones launching in the latter half of the year. As was the case last year, Qualcomm isn't changing too many things; after all, the Snapdragon 888 is one of the fastest chipsets in the world, delivering excellent performance figures and global 5G connectivity.

But for manufacturers releasing flagships in the latter half of 2021, Qualcomm is offering an even faster version of the Snapdragon 888. At its core, that's what the Snapdragon 888 Plus; with the clocks on the Cortex A1 core now going up to 2.996GHz, the chipset will deliver incremental performance gains over the regular Snapdragon 888. The chipset also delivers 20% better performance in AI tasks while using the same Hexagon 780 module.

Other than the increase in AI performance and clock speeds, the Snapdragon 888 Plus is identical to the Snapdragon 888. In essence, the chipset is a higher-binned version of the Snapdragon 888. Here's the full hardware rundown:

Snapdragon 888 vs. Snapdragon 888 Plus

Category	Snapdragon 888	Snapdragon 888 Plus
CPU Cores	1 x 2.84GHz Cortex X1 3 x 2.42GHz Cortex A78 4 x 1.80GHz Cortex A55	1 x 2.995GHz Cortex X1 3 x 2.42GHz Cortex A78 4 x 1.80GHz Cortex A55
GPU	Adreno 660 25% faster than Adreno 650	Adreno 660 25% faster than Adreno 650
AI Engine	Hexagon 780 26 TOPS	Hexagon 780 32 TOPS 20% more than SD888
5G Modem	Snapdragon X60 (Integrated) 5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave Up to 7.5Gbps down Up to 3Gbps uplink Dynamic Spectrum Sharing	Snapdragon X60 (Integrated) 5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave Up to 7.5Gbps down Up to 3Gbps uplink Dynamic Spectrum Sharing
Connectivity	FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.2	FastConnect 6900 Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.2
Display	QHD+ at 144Hz 4K at 60Hz HDR10+, 10-bit color	QHD+ at 144Hz 4K at 60Hz HDR10+, 10-bit color
Memory	LPDDR5 up to 3200MHz Up to 16GB RAM	LPDDR5 up to 3200MHz Up to 16GB RAM
ISP	14-bit Spectra 580 4K video at 120fps 8K at 30fps	14-bit Spectra 580 4K video at 120fps 8K at 30fps
Node	5nm	5nm

Qualcomm isn't changing too many things with the Snapdragon 888 Plus because it doesn't need to. The chipset will be limited to devices that are aimed at gamers or flagships that want to make use of the latest silicon. And if the Snapdragon 865 Plus was any indication last year, you won't be able to notice any difference between the Snapdragon 888 and the Plus model in day-to-day use.

The power on offer with the Snapdragon 888 is more than adequate for even the most demanding of games, so if you just got a phone powered by the chipset, you don't have to worry about it being obsolete. The likes of Motorola, Xiaomi, ASUS, Vivo, and Honor set to roll out phones with the Snapdragon 888 Plus starting in Q3, so if you're interested in seeing what Qualcomm's latest chipset has to offer, hang tight. If you don't want to wait, any of the Snapdragon 888-powered phones will serve you just fine.

The phone you need

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by Harish Jonnalagadda