Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Plus 5G

Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 (SM6450) mobile platform was designed for Android-based smartphones and tablets and was launched in September 2022. The SoC (system-on-a-chip) is in the entry-level class and is based on ARM's v9 architecture.

The cryo CPU of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 1 is based on four ARM Cortex-A78 performance cores with clock frequencies of up to 2.2 GHz and an efficiency cluster consisting of four Cortex-A55 cores with a clock frequency of 1.8 GHz.

An Adreno 710 is used as the integrated graphics unit. The Soc also integrates a Spectra ISP (200 MP photo), a dual-channel 16-bit LPDDR 2750 MHz memory controller, an X62 5G modem (max 2.9 GBit/s download, 1.6 Gbit/s upload), a Fastconnect 6700 Wi-Fi 6E / Bluetooth 5.2 modem and Hexagon.

The SoC is manufactured in the modern 4 nm process at Samsung.

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.