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  • ASUS has confirmed that its upcoming gaming device, the ROG Phone II, will use this new chip from Qualcomm.

A common complaint about the new trend of gaming phones is that they use the same system-on-a-chip (and largely the same other internals) as non-gaming phones, so they usually don't have much of a performance boost over other devices. That could finally change, as Qualcomm announced today that its developing an overclocked Snapdragon 855 — the aptly-named Snapdragon 855 Plus.

Qualcomm is touting the 855 Plus as a processor for "5G, gaming, AI and XR" — all the buzzwords. It still has a separate X50 modem for 5G connectivity, and the same 4th-gen AI Engine, but it does have two minor advantages over the regular 855. It uses Kyro CPU cores clocked at up to 2.96GHz, a modest boost from 2.84GHz on the 855, and the Adreno 840 GPU is supposedly 15% faster.

That's not a major improvement by any stretch of the imagination, but it's at least something that will give Android gaming phones a slight edge over mainstream flagships (unless the flagship in question is a recent iPhone). Qualcomm didn't reveal which upcoming phones will use the chip, but perhaps we'll see an ASUS ROG Phone sequel soon, or yet another Nubia Red Magic device.

UPDATE: 2019/07/16 1:43am PDT BY RITA EL KHOURY

ASUS has confirmed that its upcoming gaming device, the ROG Phone II, will use this new chip from Qualcomm.

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