Today, most consumers are already familiar with the manufacturer’s pricing strategy. The most direct way is through the core hardware device of the mobile phone-the chip. To distinguish between different products of the same flagship series. In chip-related fields, Qualcomm, as the industry leader, has been influencing the entire mobile phone industry through its own technological iterations. This year, Qualcomm is even rarer to officially put two flagship chips into the market, providing mobile phone manufacturers and users with more choices. One is the Snapdragon 888 flagship that officially debuted with Xiaomi Mi 11 at the beginning of this year. The other is the Snapdragon 870 flagship chip officially released on January 19.
As we all know, the new chips that usually begin with “8” are the latest products of the Snapdragon flagship series, which means that these two chips meet the industry’s requirements for flagship products. In addition, these two chips represent Qualcomm’s mature control capabilities and exploration of new technologies in all aspects. The two chips seem to be connected during the entire transitional era. While carrying past experience, they also enlighten the future direction.
In terms of process technology, no matter which field the trend of evolution from 7nm to 5nm is overwhelming, as the Snapdragon 870 is equipped with 7nm process technology, we may not be able to say that this will be the “last climb” of the world’s advanced chips on 7nm, but the Snapdragon 870 It has indeed become the “ceiling” of 7nm process chips on the market. At the same time, the 3.2 GHz A77 main core used by the Snapdragon 870 is paired with three 42GHz A77 large cores and four 1.80GHz A55 small cores, allowing the ultra-high performance achieved by the mature technology in terms of processing speed and power consumption. The extreme achieved so that this chip still has good strength.
As Snapdragon’s first 5nm process chip, Snapdragon 888 far exceeds the 7nm process in terms of transistor density. At the same time, Snapdragon 888 uses the main core 2.84GHz Cortex-X1 in the architecture, with three 2.42GHz Cortex-A78 large cores, and four 1.8Ghz Cortex-A55 small cores. The official said that the performance is improved compared to the previous generation Snapdragon 865. 25%, with more impressive performance than similar products, it can be said that it is the king of the strongest performance in the Snapdragon chips that have been officially listed. It is worth noting that this is also the first chip to officially use the ARM Cortex-X1 design.
Its decoding bandwidth has been increased from 4 channels of Cortex-A78 to 5 channels, an increase of 25%; NEON floating-point has been increased from two 128b to Four 128b lines are equivalent to double the floating-point performance; in terms of cache, the L1 cache of Cortex-X1 is 64KB, the L2 cache is 1MB, and the L3 cache can reach up to 8MB, which is twice that of Cortex-A78. The peak performance of Cortex-X1 is 30% higher than that of Cortex-A77, and it has a 22% performance advantage over the latest Cortex-A78, and its machine learning capability is twice that of Cortex-A77 and A78. Through excellent adaptation to the characteristics of the Cortex-X1 “customizable” mobile platform, Snapdragon 888 has finally achieved a comprehensive improvement in process, cache, architecture, NPU, and ISP.
The above mentioned are the basic configuration of these two chips. It can be seen that there are obvious differences in technology between the Snapdragon 870 and the Snapdragon 888. But this does not affect the two chips can be called a flagship level of performance. This also brings more room for mobile phone manufacturers to play. Compared with the previous market, consumers now have more detailed and personalized needs for products. The flagship products of the same series must attract as many audiences as possible in multiple dimensions, so many basic configuration levels may no longer satisfy all users. For geek users, the ultimate performance experience is the right way to attract them, so the emergence of super big cup products has become inevitable.
If the data listed above for the two chips can not intuitively show the superiority of their performance, then we will choose the Redmi K40 series to use the Snapdragon 870 and Snapdragon 888 products to see how they perform.
Both Redmi K40 and K40 Pro are equipped with a 6.67-inch Samsung E4 AMOLED straight screen. Compared with the E3 material screen released in 2019, it has a higher peak brightness, up to 1300nit, and a screen contrast of 5000000:1. It supports a 120Hz refresh rate, 360Hz three-finger touch sampling rate, side fingerprint unlock, up to 33W wired fast charge, a built-in 4520mAh battery. Both phones are rear-mounted three-camera combinations. Redmi K40 is equipped with a 48-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera, and a 5-megapixel telephoto macro. The K40 Pro is equipped with a 64-megapixel main camera, an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and a 5MP telephoto macro. In the core configuration, Redmi K40 is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 870, while K40 Pro uses Qualcomm Snapdragon 888, and the performance is significantly improved over the previous generation. At the same time, this is also Redmi’s first series of products equipped with these two chips.
Using the Antutu running score software for testing, we can see that the Redmi K40 Pro equipped with Snapdragon 888 has reached 727,853 points, and the Redmi K40 with Snapdragon 870 has also scored 631,320 points. The running scores of both have reached the current mainstream flagship level. Among them, the 5nm process technology and the Cortex-X1 super-large core enable the Snapdragon 888 to have a higher level of performance.
In terms of GPU that determines the graphics processing capabilities, the Snapdragon 870 uses the same Adreno 650 graphics processing chip like the Snapdragon 865, while the Snapdragon 888 has a brand new Adreno 660 chip. The official said that compared with the previous generation, the performance is improved by 35%. Increase by 20%. Through the 3D Mark OpenGL ES 3.1 test, we can see that the K40 Pro scores 7477 points and the K40 scores 6298 points. K40 Pro relies on the Adreno 660 integrated by Snapdragon 888 to obtain very good graphics processing capabilities, which means that K40 Pro can obtain higher game picture quality and more stable game frames in games, especially in high-frame games. 
Since both Redmi K40 Pro and K40 phones support 90 frames of “Glory of the King”, this itself has high requirements for mobile phone performance. We can see that the average frame of the K40 equipped with the Snapdragon 870 is the average frame of the K40 by testing the two phones. The number is 90.5 frames, the overall operation is smooth, but there is a certain fluctuation in the number of frames, while the average frame number of K40 Pro is 92.5 frames, the running effect is very smooth, the frame number curve is stable, and relying on the Snapdragon 888, it is guaranteed to run smoothly. At the same time have a better gaming experience. 
In addition to games, taking pictures is also a common scene in our daily use. Redmi K40 and K40 Pro have different configurations on the main camera. The former is equipped with a 48-megapixel main camera, and the latter K40 Pro is equipped with a 64-megapixel main camera. Equipped with an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle camera and a 5-megapixel telephoto macro camera.
In the daytime environment, the imaging style of the Redmi K40 series is the ultimate restoration of the real picture, what you see is what you get. From the proofs, both mobile phones have clear imaging, clear light, and dark and have a high margin for secondary creation. Relying on the processing speed of Snapdragon 888, photo imaging is fast. In addition, the brightness and color of the photos are balanced, which can meet the aesthetics of most people.
In the complex light at night, the Redmi K40 series still has excellent picture quality, the imaging speed is still fast, the purity is high, and the noise is well controlled. Using the night scene mode can also improve the night scene imaging level of the Redmi K40 series. While controlling the exposure, improves the clarity of the picture by enhancing the sharpness of the photo while retaining the atmosphere of the night scene itself.
In addition, when shooting night scenes, you can turn on the black gold, green orange, and other filters built into the phone to obtain night scene effects with different styles. In fact, these two phones have integrated many photos and video post-production functions in the photo editing function, including one-click beautification, filters, etc., magic sky, and other functions. This is also derived from the computing power of the Snapdragon 870 and Snapdragon 888 flagship chips. And image resolution, while improving the shooting experience, also simultaneously enhances the playability of taking pictures.
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Redmi K40 is priced at 2699 yuan, and Redmi K40 Pro is priced at 2999 yuan. In terms of price, the Redmi series has always been a more popular series, and the price/performance ratio is higher. You can have a flagship experience under 3000 yuan, which meets the demands of most users. At the same time, it is precisely because Qualcomm provides two flagship chips, the Snapdragon 870 and Snapdragon 888, that manufacturers can meet the demands of more price-sensitive customers during product planning, and at the same time realize the original intention of maintaining the brand’s high-cost performance. For geek users who are obsessed with performance, Snapdragon 888 can definitely satisfy their pursuit of “top-notch”. Nowadays, more and more manufacturers have chosen Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 870 and Snapdragon 888 chips as the standard configuration of their new flagship products. It is a great boon for both manufacturers and users. Each chip has a winning formula with excellent market performance.
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