Snapdragon 855 Vs 835 – Who’s your Pick?

For many years, Qualcomm has associated itself with various chipsets in regard to catering to the needs of modern technology and the latest phones. Worldwide many enthusiastic users look forward to the technology that keeps getting advanced with each version of handsets. 

To help you understand the difference between the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform and the Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform, we’re bringing you a detailed analysis through a comparison table. The above two processors have been doing the rounds since 2017 and are a force to reckon with for its abilities. Let’s take you through a comparison table, to begin with. 

General Comparison

Snapdragon 835 Vs. 855 detailed Comparison

1. The fabrication processes

Both Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon 835 follow a similar process in fabrication. While the Snapdragon 855 manufactures a 7 nm FinFET process, the Snapdragon 835 opts for a manufacturing process involving the 10nm FinFET process. 

There isn’t that big a difference when it comes to the two processes; however, having a 7 nm FinFET process has slightly more advantages. It provides a 20% improvement in performance and a 40% reduction in consumption than the 10nM process. 

2. CPU Performance

Let’s have a detailed look at the performance of the CPU now. Since the Snapdragon 855 processor deploys a 7nm FinFET process, it allows greater efficiency in the speed and performance with a small node. This gives it a significant advantage over the 835 processor that works with a standard 10nm FinFET process. 

The Snapdragon 855 is one of its kind, making it Qualcomm’s first-ever tri-cluster CPU design. It means that it has shifted away from the traditional layout of four big and four small chips to a more unconventional way with one massive, three big, and four of the small designs. The core is also clocked at a high rate arm of Cortex A76 design. This core gives a massive clock speed and allows greater cache memory, better than any of the previous processors, including the 845 and 835. 

Now, let’s take a look at the Snapdragon 835. Powered with the updated version of Qualcomm’s Kryho CPU, it features the 280. The CPU possesses 8 cores and is considered to be based on the ARM’s design named ‘big.Little.’ The four big cores function at a commendable speed of 2.45 GHz and give a good performance, whereas the standard little cores run at 1.9 GHz for background tasks that don’t consume a significant amount of power. 

3. GPU Performance

GPU is vital to understand the depth of graphics a device can support. The Snapdragon 855 deploys an Adreno 640 GPU made by Qualcomm since 2019 and is expected to be the top-running GPU in all the high-end models for Android. The 640 GPU offers a significant 20 percent marked performance over its predecessors and is considered one of the best Snapdragon Processor GPU’s.

The Snapdragon 835, however, works with Adreno 540, which is a standard processor used in Android devices since 2017. It has a marked improvement over Adreno 530 with a better clock speed but still comes short of Adreno 640 significantly. 

4. Artificial Intelligence

Since Qualcomm integrated with Snapdragon 855, the Hexagon 690 DSP deployed for it has undergone major revisions. The new DSP comes with an NPU with Tensor-cores that can function up to 7 trillion functions per second and the CPU and GPU, which means that the Snapdragon 855 is 3x quicker than the predecessor, Snapdragon 845.

Snapdragon 835 deploys a Hexagon 682 DSP, which falls significantly short of the much more advanced Hexagon 690 DSP in Snapdragon 855.

5. Camera

In the camera section, the Snapdragon 855 has a significant edge over the 835. Here’s why? 

The Snapdragon 835 comes with an Advanced Qualcomm Spectra camera ISP. The 14-bit Qualcomm Spectra™ 180 ISP allows photos to be shot up to 32 megapixels with no shutter lag, seamless zoom, quick auto-focus, and brings enhanced image quality with true-to-life colors in use.

These cameras are used in the mid-range to high-end range mobile phones from 2017.

The Snapdragon 855 has a better camera with a Qualcomm Spectra 380. It allows up to 48 megapixels and comes handy with a Dual-bit CV-ISP. These are used in the high-end range of Android phones since 2019. 

6. Connectivity

Proceeding to the connectivity part now, the Snapdragon 855 promises a ground-breaking 2 gigabytes/seconds download speed through LTE Cat. 20 and up to 3155 Megabyte/seconds uploads speed. It can be configured with Qualcomm’s new X50 5G modem as well.

Whereas, the Snapdragon 835 gives an X16 LTE modem, 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad WIFI that’s commonly found in the mid-range to high-end phones since 2017.

7. Storage, RAM & Display

In terms of storage, nothing separates the two, as both support UFS 2.1. Moving on to the RAM part, the Snapdragon 855 works with a 16 GB LPDDR RAM, which is significantly higher than the 4GB LPDDR RAM used in the 835 processor. 

In terms of the display, there isn’t much to separate the two. Let’s first look at some of the features for 835.

Max On-Device Display: 4K Ultra HD

Max External Display: 4K Ultra HD

I FPS: Up to 60 FPS

Colour Depth: Up to 10-bit

Let’s take a look at Snapdragon 855, which has the below features: 

Max On-Device Display: 4K Ultra HD

Max External Display: 4K Ultra HD

HDR: HDR10+

Colour Depth: Up to 10-bit

Conclusion

In conclusion, after looking at all the points of comparison, we can safely assume that Snapdragon 855 is the better performing processor, but it’s also expensive. Given that it’s a flagship model and launched much later in 2019 compared to 2017 of the Snapdragon 835, it’s bound to have better appeal, but it all comes down to your budget and needs. So, please choose wisely as we feel that both processors work well in their own ways.