【Russia】

A new generation of smartphones is Russianearly upon us.

Starting in 2019, Android phone makers will start shipping new devices with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 system-on-chip (SoC), which'll be the first chip to support 5G. That's right "5G's 'coming soon' (but really in a few years)," really is around around the corner now.

Qualcomm's Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Alex Katouzian was light on specific details about how much faster the Snapdragon 855 is compared to the current Snapdragon 845.

Katouzian also didn't share any stats on how the new chip stacks up to Apple's industry-leading A12 Bionic and A12X Bionic chips found in the iPhone XR, XS, XS Max, and new iPad Pros, respectively.

More details on the the 855 will be forthcoming on Dec. 5, the second day of Qualcomm's Snapdragon Technology Summit, but for now here's what we know about the chip and what it could mean for your next phone.

1. 5G phones coming soon

Phone makers who choose to use the 855 chip in their devices will have support for 5G out of the gate

At the Summit, Cristiano Amon, president of Qualcomm, announced the chip would support "multi-gigabit connectivity" consisting of 5G, 4G LTE, and WiFi.

Presumably, the chip will integrate Qualcomm's X50 modem in order to achieve 5G data speeds as well as the X24 LTE modem to get download speeds of up to 2 Gbps.

Ahead of the Summit, Samsung and Verizon announced they'll show off a concept 5G phone this week.

2. Faster AI and mixed reality performance

Injecting AI in more places in phones has been an ongoing trend for a few years and Qualcomm's tripled the AI performance with the 855 chip.

Qualcomm says the 855's four-generation multi-core AI Engine offers up to three times the AI performance compared to the AI Engine on the 845.

A more powerful AI Engine should improve everything from features such as object and scene-detection within the camera app, processing depth-of-field for portrait mode photos, to making digital assistants more responsive, and more.

The improved AI engine will also improve augmented and mixed reality experiences, further blurring the lines between the real and digital.

3. Built-in computer vision

The future of mobile photography and video capture is not necessarily cramming more megapixels or more lenses (although it's certainly one way forward for some phone makers). Instead, it's looking more and more that computational photography, which leverages AI and machine learning, to achieve photos and videos not possible with the camera hardware alone.

Google was quick to pioneer computational photography with the Pixel 2, using machine learning techniques to produce portrait photos with blurred backgrounds without the need for a second camera. Apple followed this year, leaning on the A12 Bionic's Neural Engine in the iPhone XR toa achieve the same (albeit only for people shots).

The Pixel 3 took computational photography to the next level with Night Sight, a mode that literally turns night shots into ones that look like day ones.

With the 855, Qualcomm says the chip's the first with a CV ISP (computer vision image signal processor) that'll enable "cutting-edge computation photography and video capture features." What exactly that means is unclear. Perhaps, portrait mode or Night Sight-like modes for video? That would really be something! Hopefully, we'll learn more soon.

4. Snapdragon Elite Gaming

Mobile gaming (especially in Asia) continues to grow like there's no tomorrow and with more people playing games like Fortniteon their phones and more companies releasing gaming-centric phones, it's no wonder Qualcomm's putting more eggs into improving the experience.

We don't know what exactly the "Snapdragon Elite Gaming" features cover, but safe bets probably include faster GPU performance with less power draw and better heat management from ramping up the 855's clockspeed.

Ultimately, mobile games running on the 855 will likely look even better with richer details (graphics always get better year-over-year) and play smoother with smoother framerates.

5. More accurate in-display fingerprint sensor

A good number of Chinese phone makers made the risky jump to include in-display fingerprint sensors in their phones. The OnePlus 6T and Huawei Mate 20 Pro are two phones with the fastest and most responsive ones.

But these opticalin-display fingerprint sensors still aren't on par with a physical sensor like Touch ID on some iPhones and the Pixel Imprint on the Pixel 3.

Qualcomm wants to change that with its "3D Sonic Sensor." Instead of shining a light from underneath the display to illuminate your fingerprint for authentication, the sensor uses ultrasound.

The chipmaker says the sensor is a marked improvement over current optical in-display sensors because it's more accurate and more secure, enables thinner designs, andworks even if your fingers are dirty or wet.

It sounds great, but we'll reserve judgement for when phones ship with these sensors.