We asked, you told us: You want Apple-crushing speed from the Snapdragon 875

Qualcomm’s next flagship silicon series, set to be called the Snapdragon 875, will likely be unveiled next month. It’s arguably the most important moment for flagship smartphone OEMs and buyers in 2021. The chip will shape the performance graphs of many Android devices to come.

As the successor to the 865, the 875 is expected to bring gains in performance and thriftier battery consumption. But will it challenge the next Samsung Exynos chip, or more importantly, Apple’s A14 Bionic?

We asked readers in a recent poll how they’d like to see Qualcomm improve the Snapdragon 875. Here’s what you told us.

What would you like to see from the Snapdragon 875?

Results

Over 1,000 readers voted on this one, and an overwhelming majority want just one thing: more speed. 51.2% of readers want the Snapdragon 875 to match or blitz the Apple A14 Bionic. That’s a tall order, even if the 875 will debut with a performance-first Cortex-X1 core.

Apple’s new silicon has proven to be faster than the Snapdragon 865 Plus powering the likes of the Samsung Galaxy S20 and Note 20 series, and ASUS ROG Phone 3. In fact, Qualcomm’s current flagship chip still lags behind the A13 Bionic on raw performance. The chipmaker has its work cut out to match Apple’s last-gen chip with its forthcoming generation.

Read more: What is an SoC? Everything you need to know about smartphone chipsets

Those not wanting to embarrass Apple users would settle for a lower price. 30% of voters wanted to see the Snapdragon 875’s price dropped below the Snapdragon 865. It’s unclear if lower-priced silicon will help stifle ever-increasing flagship smartphone prices, though.

Finally, just 17.6% of readers want Qualcomm to reign in the Snapdragon 875’s power consumption. Longer battery life is always a fair request, especially as 5G and high-refresh rate displays push power cell demands even further.

Here’s what you told us

We asked readers to list what they hope the Snapdragon 875 will bring. One comment stood out.

• Replicant Jason Booth: Faster single-core performance.

Users also shared their thoughts in this article about Apple’s widening chipset lead versus Qualcomm’s competition.

• Tony Talks: I don’t think it matters anymore honestly. Only the most hardcore of tech enthusiasts truly care. Performance has long been great with almost no discernible difference.
• Lamar Taylor: Android phones use inferior Snapdragon chips that a year or 2 behind the A series chips from Apple.
• Unicon743: It is sad, but honestly there is not a single android phone, at any price that beats last year’s underclocked A13 inside an iPhone SE. 400$ iPhone SE.
• Bubba Jones: Yes, the iPhone is a powerful device and clearly beats Android. In my mind, if someone is not rendering videos, compressing databases, other continuous CPU intensive apps, all the extra power goes to waste.

That’s it for this poll. Thanks for your votes and comments. If you have any additional thoughts about the Snapdragon 875 or its rival silicon, be sure to drop a line down below.