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• Pino - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  Looks like Mediatek success is putting some pressure on Qualcomm, great for customers.

• eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  That and the Exynos 2100, which might give the 888 a run for the performance crown. I just wonder how power intensive those X1 cores in the 1+3 big core designs are. The X1 wasn't designed for efficiency, and that may make 888-type designs a bit too much for smartphones.

• flyingpants265 - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link

  Great for which customers, exactly?

• iphonebestgamephone - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link

  Chinese

• StevoLincolnite - Monday, January 25, 2021 - link

  Less than a 200Mhz CPU clock increase on *just* a single CPU core? Big whoop.

• MooseMuffin - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  Any chance this suggests some kind of problem with the 888?

• tomumu - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  Qualcomm is likely re-using the 865 due to yield and/or supply issues with the samsung process used by the 888.

• s.yu - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link

  This article reminded me that 865 lacks an integrated modem but the combo is still more efficient than 888.

• MadDuffy - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  My guess is the 888 is much more expensive.
  
  They probably have a lot of X55s laying around, too.

• yeeeeman - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  how is sd888 more expensive if it is made on samsung process, which we all know is cheaper than tsmc?

• Kangal - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  Nah.
  Samsung 5nm is going to be more expensive than TSMC 7nm, and the QSD 888 is a larger die-size. That's because the QSD 888 is a monolithic SoC (internal radios), whereas the QSD 865-870 Plus have external radios (chiplet design?).
  
  Samsung has yield issues unlike TSMC, but TSMC has better quality wafers so they demand a more premium price. Apple has probably tapped almost all of TSMCs 5nm supplies for their iMacs, iPads, and ofcourse The iPhone.
  
  Secondly, OEMs now demand a lower price from Qualcomm due to market collapse. So the QSD 870 is like a better quality QSD 765G SoC, if you recall last year's model releases. The QSD 870 is also cheaper for Qualcomm as prices for 7nm-TSMC would've dropped slightly, and they need basically no re-engineering, making it a cheap for them to reintroduce.
  
  Besides, Qualcomm's done this many times in the past, although it has always been isolated to their low-end and midrange chipsets. And we've known for a while that this sort of thing was coming ever since the QSD 820/821 or "Plus" upgrades.... why? Because there's very little competition for Qualcomm (Apple is in another market, Nvidia's out, Samsung's struggling, HiSilicon and MediaTek lack the market, staff and funding to compete effectively).

• eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  The 888 seems to be quite "power hungry", and not just like an authoritarian politician, but for Wh. That'd be a real downer for the ever-slimmer flagships with smaller batteries that are still what phone makers are rolling out.

• dudedud - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  Wouldn't this be even more inefficient than the 865+?
  
  Unless QC sells it quite cheap I don't see how any OEM would prefer it over the regular or plus version.

• LiviuTM - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  Not necessarily so, most likely it's manufactured on an updated N7P process. As times goes by and the foundries become more familiar with a specific process, the process is tweaked and optimized and the PDK is updated accordingly, leading to better yields and better performing silicon.

• iphonebestgamephone - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link

  Isnt that what happened with the 865+? And it was inefficient.

• gijames1225 - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  How is the 5g bundling handled? If this requires a separate chip (and mandates 5g to the OEM) then I'd be surprised if the pricing is all that great compared to the 888.

• serendip - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link

  Expect poor battery life if 5G and 4G(?) require separate chips. This weird release might be a stopgap measure to make up for low SD888 yields so that smartphone makers have enough chips to go around.

• Peskarik - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  Reminds me of Intel somehow...

• dullard - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  Because people can't come up with anything useful to the discussion, so they bash model numbers and plus signs instead?

• eastcoast_pete - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  I wonder if this isn't also a backup option in case the 888 is indeed a bit of a power hog. Some initial tests with the Mi11 suggested that the 888 is yes, fast, but does like to eat battery for breakfast, so you'd need a recharge by lunchtime. The 870 might just be the more practical option. Now waiting for a test of the 888, maybe Andrei proves me all wrong on this.

• brucethemoose - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link

  Aren't fabs absolutely swamped atm?
  
  Recycling silicon from an old, possibly less supply constrained node makes sense to me, though I wish they'd *underclock* the 865 a bit instead.

• eastcoast_pete - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link

  +1 on that. An efficiency -tuned, underclocked, lower voltage 865 would be attractive, and make for a competent SoC that can go all day with a 4,500 mAh battery even with a 90 Hz screen. Unfortunately, that idea (stamina) seems to be lost on most manufacturers.

• iphonebestgamephone - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link

  A nice custom kernel would fix that. Though then you end up paying extra for the unwanted mhz.

• iphonebestgamephone - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link

  Oems could just implement low power modes like huawei too.

• Appleispoop - Monday, January 25, 2021 - link

  Mediatek's dimensity 1200 is much much better in CPU