Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 865, 765, and 765G 5G Mobile Platforms

Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit 2019 is taking place in Maui, Hawaii, US on December 3-5, and the company announced three 5G mobile platforms at the event:

Snapdragon 865 with Qualcomm Kryo 585 CPU, Adreno 650 GPU, and external Snapdragon X55 5G modem up to 7.5 Gbps download
Snapdragon 765 with Qualcomm Kryo 475 CPU, Adreno 620 GPU, and external Snapdragon X52 5G modem up to 3.75 Gbps download
Snapdragon 765G where G stands for Gaming and the SoC comes with a speed-binned Qualcomm Kryo 475 CPU, while the Qualcomm Adreno 620 GPU provides 10% faster graphics rendering compared to the standard Snapdragon 765.

Snapdragon 865 5G Mobile Platform

SM8250 specifications provided by Qualcomm:

CPU – Octa-core Kryo 585 up to 2.84 GHz
GPU – Adreno 650 GPU with support for Vulkan 1.1 API, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenGL 2.0 FP, 10-bit HDR gaming, hardware-accelerated H.265, and VP9 decoder
DSP – Hexagon 698 with Hexagon Tensor Accelerator, Vector eXtensions, and Scalar Accelerator
Qualcomm Sensing Hub
- Ultra-low-power hub for audio, voice, and sensors
- Supports AI algorithms at low power
- Support for fusing contextual data streams including sensors, audio, and voice
- Supports multiple voice assistants
- Multi-mic far-field detection and echo cancellation
Memory – LP-DDR5 memory up to 2750 MHz, LPDDR4x memory up to 2133 MHz up to 16 GB
Display
- On-Device Display Support – 4K @ 60 Hz or QHD+ @ 144 Hz
- External Display Support – up to 4K @ 60 Hz
Camera
- Qualcomm Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor
- Dual 14-bit ISPs up to 2 Gigapixels per Second
- Up to 25 MP dual camera @ 30 FPS with Zero Shutter Lag
- Up to 64 MP single camera @ 30 FPS with Zero Shutter Lag
- Video Capture – 4K @ 120 FPS, 8K @ 30 FPS, slow-mo video capture at 720p @ 960 FPS
- HDR – HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, Dolby Vision
Audio
- Hexagon Voice Assistant Accelerator for hardware-accelerated voice signal processing
- Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (Up to WCD9385)
- Qualcomm Aqstic smart speaker amplifier (up to WSA8815)
Connectivity
- 5G Modem-RF System
  - Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System
  - Multimode support: 5G NR, LTE including CBRS, WCDMA, HSPA, TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM/EDGE
  - 5G mmWave: 800 MHz bandwidth, 8 carriers, 2×2 MIMO
  - 5G Sub-6 GHz: 200 MHz bandwidth, 4×4 MIMO•Qualcomm
  - Downlink: Up to 7.5 Gbps
  - Uplink: Up to 3 Gbps
  - Dual SIM/Dual Standby support
- Wi-Fi & Bluetooth
  - Qualcomm FastConnect 6800 Subsystem supporting Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), 802.11ac Wave 2, 802.11a/b/g/n up to 1.774 Gbps
  - Qualcomm 60 GHz WiFi supporting 802.11ad, 802.11ay standards up to 10 Gbps
  - Bluetooth 5.1 with Qualcomm aptX Voice audio support
- Location – GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, and SBAS
- Near Field Communications (NFC)
USB – USB 3.1 Type-C support
Security
- Secure Processing Unit for Mobile Payment
- Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor and Qualcomm 3D Sonic Max
- Biometric Authentication – Fingerprint, Iris, Voice, Face
- Qualcomm Mobile Security, Key Provisioning Security, Qualcomm Processor Security, Qualcomm Content Protection, Qualcomm Trusted Execution Environment, Camera Security, Crypto Engine, Malware Protection, Secure Boot, Secure Token
Charging – Quick Charge 4+ technology
Manufacturing – 7 nm Process Technology

However, based on Anandtech coverage of the new processor, Kryo 585 is not a custom core, and instead, the eight-core CPU is configured as follows:

1x Cortex A77 @ 2.84GHz with 512KB L2 cache
3x Cortex A77 @ 2.42GHz with 256KB L2 cache per core
4x Cortex A55 @ 1.80GHz with 128KB L2 cache per core
4MB L3 cache

The CPU is supposed to deliver up to 25% performance compared to Snapdragon 855, and the Adreno 650 GPU is also said to be 25% faster.

The company also explains the mobile platform features the new 5th generation Qualcomm AI Engine leveraging the CPU, GPU, DSP and Sensor Hub to deliver up to 15 TOPS of AI performance, or twice as much as its predecessor, and mostly due to the improved Qualcomm Hexagon Tensor Accelerator that has 4x the TOPS performance, while operating at 35% greater power efficiency.

The first Snapdragon 865 devices are expected to start shipping in Q1 2020. More details can be found on the product page.

Snapdragon 765 / 765G Mobile Platforms

Besides the premium Snapdragon 865 mobile platform, the company also introduced the more affordable Snapdragon 765 (SM7250-AA) and Snapdragon 765G (SM7250-AB) SoCs with the following specifications:

CPU – Qualcomm Kryo 475 CPU up to 2.3 GHz (Snapdragon 765) or 2.4 GHz (Snapdragon 765G)
GPU – Adreno 620 GPU with support for Vulkan 1.1, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 P, DirectX 12 APIs, 4K HDR10 PQ, and HLG Video Playback, H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC) VP8 and VP9 playback.
DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon 696 Processor with Vector eXtensions, Tensor Accelerator
Qualcomm Sensing Hub
- Ultra-low-power hub for audio, voice, and sensors
- Supports AI algorithms at low power
- Support for fusing contextual data streams including sensors, audio, and voice
- Supports multiple voice assistants
- Multi-mic far-field detection and echo cancellation
Memory – up to 12GB dual-channel LPDDR4x @ 2133 MHz
Display
- On-Device Display – up to QHD+ @ 60 Hz
- External Display – up to 4K UHD @ 60 Hz
Camera
- Qualcomm Spectra 355 Image Signal Processor
- Dual 14-bit ISPs
- Up to 22 MP dual camera @ 30 FPS with Zero Shutter Lag
- Up to 36 MP single camera @ 30 FPS with Zero Shutter Lag
- Slow-mo video capture at 720p @ 480 FPS
- HDR – HDR10+, HDR10, HLG
Audio
- Hexagon Voice Assistant Accelerator for hardware-accelerated voice signal processing
- Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec up to WCD9385
- Qualcomm Aqstic smart speaker amplifier up to WSA8815
Connectivity
- 5G Modem-RF System
  - Snapdragon X52 5G Modem-RF System
  - Multimode support: 5G NR, LTE including CBRS, WCDMA, HSPA, TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM/EDGE
  - 5G mmWave and sub-6 GHz, standalone (SA) and non-standalone (NSA) modes, FDD, TDD
  - 5G mmWave: 400 MHz bandwidth, 2×2 MIMO
  - 5G Sub-6 GHz: 100 MHz bandwidth, 4×4 MIMO
  - Downlink: Up to 3.7 Gbps (5G), 1.2 Gbps (LTE)
  - Uplink: Up to 1.6 Gbps (5G), 210 Mbps (LTE)
- Wi-Fi & Bluetooth
  - Qualcomm FastConnect 6200 Subsystem supporting 802.11ax-ready, 802.11ac Wave 2, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n
  - Bluetooth 5.0 with Qualcomm TrueWireless Technology, aptX Adaptive
- Location – GPS, Glonass, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS, and SBAS
- Near Field Communications (NFC)
USB – USB Type-C with support for DisplayPort alt-mode
Security
- Biometric Authentication – Fingerprint, Iris, Voice, Face
- Qualcomm Mobile Security, Key Provisioning Security, Qualcomm Processor Security, Qualcomm Content Protection, Qualcomm Trusted Execution Environment, Camera Security, Crypto Engine, Malware Protection, Secure Boot, Secure Token
Charging – Quick Charge 4+ technology
Manufacturing – 7 nm Process Technology

Snapdragon 765/765G mobile platforms are successors to the Snapdragon 730, and again we have to look at Anandtech reporting to find out about the details of the processor configuration since Qualcomm could not bother (or they are hiding it well):

1x Kryo 475 Prime (Cortex-A76 class) @ 2.3GHz (non-G) or 2.4GHz (765G)
1x Kryo 475 Gold (Cortex-A76 class) @ 2.2GHz
6x Kryo 475 Silver (Cortex-A55 class) @ 1.8GHz

Adreno 620 GPU is also 20% faster for Snapdragon 765, and 38% quicker for 765G. The latter is also said to deliver up to 5.5 TOPS of AI performance.

Devices based on Snapdragon 765 and 765G are expected to be commercially available in Q1 2020, and you can find further information on the product page.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.