Qualcomm Snapdragon 860 is clocking up to 2.96 GHz

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon has gained popularity in its domain and plans to release multiple chipsets under the 400-series, 600-series, and 700-series every year. On the other hand, the company has so far been following one golden rule; the 800-series only sees one flagship-grade release per year, with minor revisions.

The year 2021 witnessed a minor change to this strategy: while their 2021 flagship SoC is the Snapdragon 888, they also introduced a Snapdragon 870, a refreshed, higher-clocked version of the Snapdragon 865/865+, for cheaper devices. Qualcomm is further continuing this strategy with a new member of the family, the Snapdragon 860.

The Snapdragon 870 is a revised version of the Snapdragon 865, and the Snapdragon 860 is a revised version of the Snapdragon 855. The SoC features an octa-core processor with Qualcomm’s Kryo 485 CPU cores clocking up to 2.96 GHz.

The chipset will be fabricated on a 7nm process, similar to the Snapdragon 855, 865, and 870. The Snapdragon 860 supports up to 16 GB of RAM and several new cameras feature such as ultra-wide lens night mode, selfie night mode, and dual video.

This SoC would be for upper-tier mid-range devices rather than straight-out flagships.

Snapdragon 860-powered smartphones are said to perform better than the 2019 flagships and will also be more powerful than many current mid-range devices.

The Snapdragon 860 is first coming with the POCO X3 Pro.