Wan Zhiqiang: Qualcomm is unlikely to release a Snapdragon 865+
Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 855+ last year as a better-performing refresh of the Snapdragon 855. There's unlikely to be a repeat with the Snapdragon 865, however, as an OEM exec has confirmed that Qualcomm will not release a Snapdragon 865+.
Qualcomm released the Snapdragon 855+ in the latter half of 2019, as a better-binned, overclocked refresh of the Snapdragon 855 with slightly better CPU and GPU performance. It would appear, however, that the American silicon makes have no plans to release a Snapdragon 865+ this year.
Going by the words of Meizu's CMO, Wan Zhiqiang, there will be no Snapdragon 865+, and all of Meizu's flagship phones this year will be equipped with the Snapdragon 865. It makes sense that an executive of a sizeable OEM like Meizu would be privy to such information, so we'd be very surprised if this turned out to be false.
The Snapdragon 865 has come under fire for its high price. That pricing has, in turn, led to an industry-wide rise in the prices of flagships this year—or, at least, given OEMs the excuse they need to raise prices. As a result, a number of OEMs are either looking for alternatives, or moving their phones downmarket to the cheaper Snapdragon 765G platform. A Snapdragon 865+ would likely be more expensive than the Snapdragon 865 already is, and no one wants that.
Ricci Rox - Senior Tech Writer - 2808 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2017
I like tech, simple as. Half the time, you can catch me writing snarky sales copy. The rest of the time, I'm either keeping readers abreast with the latest happenings in the mobile tech world or watching football. I worked as both a journo and freelance content writer for a couple of years before joining the Notebookcheck team in 2017. Feel free to shoot me some questions on Twitter or Reddit if it so tickles thine fancy.