Qualcomm equipped the Snapdragon 888 Plus mobile chip with some noteworthy improvements over the regular variant. The Snapdragon 888 itself introduced a handful of upgrades over its predecessor when it debuted back in December of 2020. While the Plus version is certainly the better of the company's flagship system-on-chip, users still shouldn't expect the technological gap between the two to be that substantial.
The Snapdragon 888 includes Qualcomm's X60 5G modem that's capable of delivering blazing fast yet secure internet connections, as well as camera optimizations that allow smartphones to achieve higher photo and video quality. Furthermore, the company also improved its AI-engine to be able to handle more tasks at the same time, leading to better gaming and overall mobile performance. Wits latest Plus variant, Qualcomm is looking to push the Snapdragon 888's many standout features even further.
In a press release, Qualcomm claims that its Snapdragon 888 Plus presents a 20-percent improvement in performance when compared to its predecessor, with a strong focus on utilizing AI as means of enhancing the overall user experience. This translates to better AI-aided optimization when it comes to areas like gaming, streaming, photography and connectivity, among others. The company regards the Snapdragon 888 Plus as its “highest performing platform,” but just how far ahead of the standard version is it?
Snapdragon 888 Plus Similarities & Upgrades
Both the Snapdragon 888 Plus and the regular variant share a lot of key components, such as utilizing the same Kryo 680 CPU, Adreno 660 GPU, X60 5G modem and even the same Spectra 580 Image Signal Processor. However, that doesn't mean they perform evenly in every department. For starters, The Plus version puts a lot of emphasis on AI-enhanced optimizations that further improve the Snapdragon 888's gaming performance, with new features like Natural Language Processing, said to offer real-time language translations and more responsive voice commands. While there isn't much change in terms of connectivity speeds, the newer variant does come with the advantage of more AI enhancements, such as AI-based super-resolution and noise cancellation. All of which aims to improve quality in tasks, like streaming media or video calls.
Despite having a similar CPU, the Snapdragon 888 Plus amps up the clock speed further to 3.0 GHz, allowing it to process more tasks at the same time, while the regular variant tops out at 2.8 GHz. When it comes to photography, the base variant boasts various camera upgrades including 8K video recording, but the Plus version ups the ante by allowing 8K encoding and decoding, which lets users view and capture 8K content seamlessly. Overall, the Snapdragon 888 Plus undoubtedly increases the standard of Qualcomm's mobile SoCs, even though its notable changes might seem quite nuanced.
Sources: Qualcomm