The upcoming Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 chip could come in two variants

Later this year, Qualcomm will launch the successor to its more powerful Snapdragon 855 processor. We have already seen some leaks of the SM8250, which is the code name of the upcoming Snapdragon 865 mobile platform. The company has already announced that the next Snapdragon Mobile Platform will come with a built-in 5G modem.

Apart from the built-in 5G modem, Qualcomm has not revealed any other details about its next flagship chipset. However, the last tweet from @rquandt indicates that the next Snapdragon chipset will come with an external 5G modem.

If this turns out to be true, we may see two variants of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 865 mobile platform. Although the first smartphones with Snapdragon 865 will not be launched until the beginning of 2020, the deployment of 5G networks will still be in its initial phase. While there are already several announced 5G smartphones, the number of commercially available devices is very small.

With the integrated 5G modem, manufacturers will have extra space to add a slightly larger battery, a better cooling system or any other element.

The Snapdragon 865 with the integrated 5G modem should be the preferred chipset for markets such as the United States and South Korea, where the adoption of 5G will be greater. In other countries where penetration will be lower, manufacturers can launch their flagship smartphones with the latest Snapdragon mobile platform without the 5G modem, which will be cheaper.

Just as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 features the Snapdraong X50 5G modem, the Snapdragon 865 with integrated 5G will use the latest Snapdragon X55 5G modem.

Qualcomm has already confirmed that the next Snapdragon 5G mobile platform will use the 2nd generation sub-6 GHz and mmWave antenna modules. You will also have the new PowerSave 5G technology that increases the battery life of 5G smartphones.