Qualcomm renewed its focus on the mobile gaming market, unveiling the Snapdragon 870 platform which it stated will power flagship devices from Lenovo-owned Motorola Mobility, OnePlus, Oppo, Xiaomi and Vivo sub-brand IQOO.

The chipset is a follow-on to the Snapdragon 865 Plus released in July 2020, with which it shares features including an Adreno 650 GPU; Hexagon 698 processor; Spectra 480 ISP; fifth-generation AI engine; Snapdragon Elite gaming package; and X55 modem supplying 5G capabilities and peak download rates of 7.5Gb/s.

An enhanced Kryo 585 CPU offers core clock speed of 3.2GHz compared with 3.1GHz in the previous model.

The company also included its FastConnect 6800 mobile connectivity system, offering Wi-Fi speeds of 1.8Gb/s compared with 3.6Gb/s delivered by FastConnect 6900 in Snapdragon 865 Plus.

A Qualcomm representative told Mobile World Live manfacturers opting for the latest platform “are looking to deliver premium-tier performance, but do not require the latest and greatest features” offered by its top-tier Snapdragon 888 chipset.

Zeng Kunpeng, GM of iQOO’s product line, stated the platform would allow it to “provide powerful performance and top e-sports experiences” in its next device, tipping its work with Qualcomm to “further drive the development of the mobile gaming ecosystem”.

Qualcomm stated announcements regarding device launches based on Snapdragon 870 are expected in the current quarter.