Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus With 15 Percent Faster GPU Unveiled, Will Debut in Asus ROG Phone 2

Qualcomm has announced Snapdragon 855 Plus, a mid-cycle refresh to its flagship Snapdragon 855 SoC, which is claimed to offer better graphics performance and a slight edge in core computing prowess. The only major hardware-level difference between the Snapdragon 855 Plus and the Snapdragon 855 is that the new chipset is clocked at a slightly higher speed, and the GPU has received a 15 percent performance boost as well. The first phone to come equipped with the Snapdragon 855 Plus platform is the Asus ROG Phone 2, which is expected to go official later this month.

Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon 855 Plus has been designed to offer improved gaming performance and enhanced experiences when it comes to 5G, AI processing, AR, and VR. Qualcomm aims to leverage the added power delivered by the Snapdragon 855 Plus to further boost the output from Snapdragon Elite Gaming Experience and provide an optimised gaming experience on phones powered by it.

Under the hood, the Kryo 485 cores at the heart of the Snapdragon 855 Plus are clocked at a higher 2.96GHz, while the same cores ticking inside the Snapdragon 855 are clocked at 2.84GHz. The CPU performance boost is around 4.2 percent, but the more notable upgrade comes in the graphics department. Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon 855 Plus' Adreno 640 GPU delivers a 15 percent boost in graphics performance compared to the standard Snapdragon 855.

Remaining in-house features such as the Qualcomm Aqstic, Qualcomm aptX, AI engine, and QC 4.0+ are carried over from the Snapdragon 855. The new Qualcomm SoC comes equipped with the Snapdragon X24 LTE modem for 4G connectivity and the Snapdragon X50 modem for 5G support. Qualcomm adds that phones powered by Snapdragon 855 Plus will arrive in the second half of 2019.

Asus, on the other hand, has announced that the company's upcoming gaming phone in the ROG series will employ the Snapdragon 855 Plus. Christened the ROG Phone 2, it will be the world's first phone to sport the beefed up version of Qualcomm's flagship SoC and is set to be launched on July 23 in China packing a 120Hz display. The ROG Phone II will reportedly come in two variants and is tipped to carry a starting price of CNY 4,399 (roughly Rs. 44,400) in China.