MediaTek Dimensity 820 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus 5G

MediaTek Dimensity 820

The Mediatek Dimensity 820 is a fast mid-range SoC with an integrated 5G modem. It includes four fast ARM Cortex-A76 cores at up to 2.6 GHz and four power efficient Cortex-A55 cores at up to 2 GHz (Octa-Core with Heterogeneous Multi-Processing). Furthermore, the chip integrates a 5 core ARM Mali-G57 MC5 GPU, a Wi-fi 5 modem, a LPDDR4x memory controller, a AI processing unit (APU 3.0) and video de- and encoding. The Dimensity 820 is manufactured in the modern 7nm process and should be very power efficient.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 4G Mobile Platform is a high-end SoC for smartphones that was introduced in mid 2021 and manufactured in 5 nm at Samsung. Compared to the earlier released Snapdragon 888 5G, the 4G variant only features a 4G LTE modem.

The chip integrates one “Prime Core” based on a ARM Cortex-X1 architecture clocked at up to 2.84 GHz. Three more performance cores are based on the A78 but clock up to 2.42 GHz. Furthermore, four energy saving cores are integrated that are based on the ARM Cortex-A55 architecture and clock at up to 1.8 GHz. In addition to the processor cores, the SoC integrates a WiFi 6e modem, a Hexagon 780 DSP (up to 26 TOPS of AI performance) and a Spectra 580 ISP. The integrated memory controller now supports faster LPDDR5 memory with up to 3,200 MHz. 

The performance of the processor cores should be around 15% better than the old Snapdragon 865+. The integrated Adreon 660 GPU should make a bigger jump by 35% (most likely compared to the SD 865).

Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus 5G

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 888+ (Plus) 5G Mobile Platform is a high-end SoC for smartphones that was introduced in mid 2021 and manufactured in 5 nm at Samsung. 

Integrates one “Prime Core” based on a ARM Cortex-X1 architecture clocked at up to 3 GHz. Three more performance cores are based on the A78 but clock up to 2.42 GHz. Furthermore, four energy saving cores are integrated that are based on the ARM Cortex-A55 architecture and clock at up to 1.8 GHz. In addition to the processor cores, the SoC integrates a WiFi 6e modem, a Hexagon 780 DSP (up to 26 TOPS of AI performance) and a Spectra 580 ISP. The integrated memory controller now supports faster LPDDR5 memory with up to 3,200 MHz. 5G is now included in the chip with the Snapdragon X60 modem.

Compared to the older Snapdragon 888, the 888+ offers a slightly higher clocked prime core (+160 MHz) and a 23% faster Hexagon 790 DSP. Therefore, it is now the fastest Android SoC (at the time of announcement), but still slightly slower (CPU and GPU) than the Apple A14 and A15 Bionic SoCs.