Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 865+ first mobile chipset to break 3GHz speeds

In what could be a big thing for mobile processors, Qualcomm today announced the Snapdragon 865+ chipset. While the chipset doesn’t make big changes to existing technologies, it is the first time a mobile chipset is capable of over 3GHz frequencies. It’s important advertisement for Advanced RISC Machine (ARM), which creates the architectures for almost all mobile chipsets today.

ARM has been claiming that mobile chipsets can achieve such frequencies ever since it announced the Cortex A75 architecture, back in 2017. However, the Snapdragon 865 is the first time a chipset maker has actually utilised one of its architectures to cross the 3GHz threshold. The Kryo 585 architecture used in the Snapdragon 865+ is based on ARM’s more recent offerings and clocks in at 3.1GHz. In general terms though, it’s only a 10% power boost to the company’s Snapdragon 865 processor which has been used in most flagship phones this year.

At the very least, it makes mobile manufacturers a new number to tout on their devices. While higher clock speeds usually mean more power consumption, mobile chipsets are designed for efficiency.