The year 2019 is fast approaching, and tech heavyweights are already gearing up for their new inventions to compete with other companies. Qualcomm is just one of them, and the modem manufacturer just confirmed that its newest Snapdragon 855 chipset will power 5G handsets that are coming next year.
Qualcomm on December 4 announced that its flagship System on a Chip (SoC) Snapdragon 855 will be the bread and butter of the most 5G smartphones in 2019. Unveiled during the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2018 in Maui, Hawaii, the new chipset will compete with Apple's incredible 64-bit ARM-based A12 Bionic Chip, which powers the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR.
As per Tech Radar, Qualcomm also presented a Snapdragon 855-powered 5G smartphone although it's only a reference design that sheds light to companies that are developing 5G handsets, including OnePlus and Samsung. OnePlus CEO has just confirmed that it's developing a 5G phone that will feature the new chipset, and that's expected to be out in the market next year.
The Snapdragon 855 is reportedly 3x more powerful than its forerunner, the Snapdragon 845, which obviously went down the line with Apple's A11 and A12 Bionic Chips. Qualcomm's new chipset sits the Kryo 485 CPU, which sees a 45 percent performance boost, and the company also confirmed that this is the biggest leap yet for a Snapdragon chipset.
Qualcomm assures incredibly faster phones in 2019 with its new chipset, which is also packed with X50 modem that will support 5G network connectivity. It will also feature better antennas that can download 2Gbps LTE, and with the world's first 60GHz Wi-Fi that speeds up to 10Gbps.
Further, the company also promises better photo and video experience with the new chipset's computer vision image signal processor (CV-ISP), which is a chip responsible for processing photos and videos. A portrait mode will also be available to the video that will allow users to capture 4K HDR with extent sensing up to 60 frames per second (fps).
Additionally, photos will have more enhancements such as object segmentation and object replacement that can enhance moving images effect. The company has been hard at work to bring the advanced in-screen fingerprint sensor to smartphones, and the 3D Sonic Sensor of which they call it "DSLR of fingerprint sensors," will soon be available on the Snapdragon 855-powered handsets.
OnePlus has confirmed that will release a Snapdragon 855 chipset-powered phone, and that could be imminent. However, Samsung Galaxy S10 range will be out in early 2019, which can also mean that the flagship phone might also feature Qualcomm's new chipset.
