The Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 5G is yet another octa-core SoC made on TSMC's 7nm manufacturing process, so Samsung's 5nm one will be reserved for the Snapdragon 888, at least for now. The Snapdragon 870 5G features a single Cortex-A77 Prime core, three Cortex-A77 cores, and four Cortex-A55 cores, and this is what Qualcomm calls the Kryo 585 CPU. It also comes with Adreno 650 GPU, as well as the Snapdragon X55 5G modem-RF system.

The Snapdragon 870 5G is Snapdragon 865+ with higher clocks and few upgrades

If the Snapdragon 870 5G specifications sound familiar, it should not be a big surprise as it is the Snapdragon 865+ in disguise, featuring the same Kryo 585 octa-core CPU, but at a slightly higher 3.2GHz Prime core clock (SD865+ worked at 3.1GHz). The precise clocks for the rest of the cores are still unknown. It still supports up to 16GB of LP-DDR5 memory up to 2750 MHz and LPDDR4x memory up to 2133 MHz.

You get the same Adreno 650 GPU, same Hexagon 698 processor with Tensor and Scalar Accelerator and Vector extensions, same Qualcomm Sensing Hub, Spectra 480 ISP, and the same external Snapdragon X55 5G modem with mmWave and sub-6GHz support for up to 7.5Gbps downlink and up to 3Gbps uplink.

One key difference is that Qualcomm is now using the FastConnect 6800 subsystem, which does not support WiFi 6E, but rather stick to standard WiFi 6 (802.11ax) dual-band with MU-MIMO and a peak speed of 1.774Gbps, as opposed to the Wi-Fi 6E on the Snapdragon 865+ with a peak speed of 3.6GHz. The FastConnect 6800 subsystem still supports Bluetooth 5.2.

Just like the Snapdragon 865+, the new Snapdragon 870 5G also comes with full suite Snapdragon Elite Gaming features and Quick Charge 4+ technology.

New smartphones with Snapdragon 870 5G coming real soon now

According to Qualcomm, there are a couple of smartphones coming from the likes of iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, and Xiaomi. Unfortunately, there are no precise details, but Motorola has promised that the announcement is coming soon, and Xiaomi and Oppo should not be far behind either.

“Building upon the success of Snapdragon 865 and 865 Plus, the new Snapdragon 870 was designed to address OEM and mobile industry requirements,” said Kedar Kondap, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Snapdragon 870 will power a selection of flagship devices from key customers including Motorola, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO, and Xiaomi.”