Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 successor's name and performance revealed in new leak

Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor, the Snapdragon 888, still continues to be available on high-end Android phones. Even though there is a slightly better Snapdragon 888 Plus processor available, the smartphone makers are now looking forward to what Qualcomm has next in the pipeline. According to a report, the successor to the Snapdragon 888 is going to be called Snapdragon 898. This is contradictory to reports that previously said that it would be the Snapdragon 895 that will arrive in 2021

The nomenclature of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors is getting confusing and it began when the chipmaker launched the Snapdragon 888 instead of the Snapdragon 875. The flagship processor before the Snapdragon 888 was the Snapdragon 865. But Chinese tipster Ice Universe has said this year’s flagship is going to be the Snapdragon 898. He added that the prime core of the chipset will be based on Cortex-X2 and will have a maximum clock speed of 3.09GHz. The Cortex-X2 debuted back in May as Arm’s next-generation high-performance CPU that brings 16 per cent performance growth over the Cortex-X1.

The tipster also said that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 898 will be based on the 4-nanometre architecture, which will unlock new performance bars for Android flagships. Apple’s iPhone 13, which is expected to arrive later this year, is going to use the A15 Bionic chipset but it will be on the 5-nanometre technology, which means next year’s Android flagships will have a slight edge over the next iPhone range. A previous report said Samsung would manufacture Qualcomm’s next chipset, but back then the report referred to this chipset as Snapdragon 895

Rumours suggest Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 898 will be ready to ship in mid-2022, which seems a bit delayed because the Snapdragon 888 began coming on high-end phones in early 2021. This processor would also have a tweaked version, maybe the Snapdragon 898 Plus, and it may go to TSMC for manufacturing, according to the previous report. TSMC is one of the biggest chip manufacturers for Apple.

With Snapdragon 898, Qualcomm is going to bring a shift in the core cluster. Instead of the 1+3+4 cluster, the Snapdragon 898 may come with the 1+3+2+2 cluster. This means there will be one Cortex-X2 prime core, three Cortex-A710 cores, two Cortex-A510 cores, and, again, two Cortex-A510 cores but at slightly lower clock speeds.

For what it is worth, Snapdragon 898 seems like a natural name for the Snapdragon 888’s successor and it is expected in December