Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 888 processor, ready for 2021 smartphones

Qualcomm normally hosts its annual Snapdragon Tech Summit in Maui, Hawaii -- but this time the company unveiled everything virtually thanks to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

The company unveiled its next-gen flagship Snapdragon 888 SoC which is the latest and greatest from Qualcomm, which packs (once again) a fully integrated 5G modem and RF front end in the form of the X60 chip. Last year's flagship, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 -- dropped the X55 modem from the chip, but now Qualcomm has tacked it onto the Snapdragon 888.

What does this mean? It means that every single Snapdragon 888-powered device in 2021 and beyond, will have world-class 5G performance. There's also a host of other goodies lurking underneath teh new Snapdragon 888, including some big upgrades for gaming, cameras, AI and so much more.

The new Snapdragon X60 modem has peak download speeds of up to 7.5Gbps while uploads reach a peak of 3Gbps -- while you'll also have the new Wi-Fi 6E standard, and more.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 888 processor is also made on the 5nm node, while it will power future smartphones at up to 4K 60Hz or up to QHD+ at a whopping 144Hz. The previous-gen Snapdragon 865 could power QHD+ at 120Hz, so the upgrade to 144Hz is a nice bump.

It shouldn't be too much longer until we have 4K 120Hz gaming smartphones at this point.