Chipmaker Qualcomm has unveiled its Snapdragon 855 mobile platform, which is the first among a new generation of smartphone processors that will support 5G connectivity in the United States next year. Snapdragon 855 chip has been launched by the company at an event in Hawaii and its key feature is the 5G Snapdragon X50 modem. This will enable smartphones to connect to 5G wireless data networks at ‘multi-gigabit’ mobile data speeds that is claimed to be up to 50 or 100 times faster than the speed that we get on the current 4G networks.
The latest processor from the biggest chipmaker in the world will power the Samsung 5G smartphone, which will be launched in H1 2019, as announced by Samsung and Verizon Communications. It is worth noticing that as of now, Qualcomm has only announced the Snapdragon 855. It will be talking in detail about it later at its ongoing annual Snapdragon Technology Summit.
But there are things that have already been revealed like Snapdragon 855 is said to come with Qualcomm’s fourth generation, multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine that boosts the AI performance of the device up to three times as compared to smartphones that run on the previous generation mobile platform.
Qualcomm has also said that its mobile platform Snapdragon 855 features the world’s first Computer Vision (CV) ISP that helps smartphones to recognise objects and faces better and it also powers new video capture features.
Qualcomm went on to say that Snapdragon 855 would support the new Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor, which is an ultrasonic fingerprint sensor by Qualcomm and can rear user’s fingerprint through the glass screen of a smartphone.
If we quote Qualcomm’s blog post about this particular feature, it said, “This is the only mobile solution that can accurately detect fingerprints through numerous contaminants. Furthermore, this technology enables sleek, cutting-edge form factors while distinguishing itself from alternatives with higher levels of security and accuracy.”
The 5G smartphone by Samsung would be a major setback for Apple, which will reportedly only launch a 5G enabled iPhone in 2020. Samsung happens to be Apple‘s biggest rival in the premium smartphone segment globally and considering the Cupertino based technology giant is locked in a legal battle with Qualcomm, it obviously wouldn’t be using its processor chips. If no other solution comes up, Apple would indeed have to be a year late in launching a 5G iPhone.
While we are waiting for more details on Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile platform, we know for sure that it will be used in most major flagship devices in 2019.
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