Each year brings us faster and faster phones, with Appleās newest iPhone leading the charge. The most recent A-series chip is always faster than whatever processors Qualcomm, Samsung, and Huawei manufacture for their latest Android flagships.
But this year, Qualcomm is doing things a little differently, as the chipmaker just announced a brand new mobile flagship processor: The Snapdragon 855 Plus. The chip is targeting powerful mobile devices, with an emphasis on 5G, gaming, AI, and AR. Itās coming in the second half of the year, which has us wondering which devices might feature the new 855 Plus silicon. Will the Pixel 4 be one of them?
When the original Pixel launched a few years ago, it featured a slightly tweaked version of the Snapdragon 820 that shipped inside other flagships that year ā Snapdragon 821 is what they called it at the time. However, the Pixel phones that followed didnāt get the same treatment, sticking with whatever Qualcomm chip was available at the time. Therefore, thereās no guarantee that the Pixel 4 will make the jump to the Snapdragon 855 Plus rather than making use of the 855 that powers the Galaxy S10, OnePlus 7, and Galaxy Note 10.
The chipmaker also revealed the Snapdragon 855 Plusās 5G features:
Snapdragon 855 Plus with an integrated multi-gigabit Snapdragon X24 LTE 4G modem also supports 5G connectivity using the X50 5G modem and Qualcomm Technologiesā RF Front-end solutions to deliver best-in-class cellular performance, superior coverage and all-day battery life in premium 5G devices.
Qualcomm makes no mention of actual OEMs that will use the 855 Plus, but one can safely assume companies like Razer, Asus, and Xiaomi are going to take advantage of the chip for their new phones.
But why shouldnāt other Android flagships also get the new 855 Plus? Googleās Pixel 4 phones, Samsungās Note 10 or the OnePlus 7T could all use it, even though they arenāt gaming phones. OnePlus already released a 5G phone with a great display for gaming, and could easily launch a OnePlus 7T Pro 5G later this year. The Note 10, meanwhile, will have two 5G versions that could benefit from the 855 Plus. Thereās no telling whether Googleās Pixel 4 phone will support 5G connectivity, however.