There are only four 5G modem chips manufacturers can use to build a 5G-capable phone: Qualcomm Snapdragon X50, HiSilicon Kirin Balong 5000, Samsung Exynos 5100, and MediaTek Helio M70. Huawei isn’t selling its Balong 5000 chip, Samsung’s Exynos 5100 isn’t available for OEMs yet, and the Helio M70 isn’t shipping, so OEMs can only opt for the Snapdragon X50 modem chip.

Today Qualcomm announced the new Snapdragon 855 Plus chip that leverages the X50 modem’s powers.

Snapdragon 855 Plus will raise the bar for elite gamers with the increase in CPU and GPU performance and elevate experiences for 5G, gaming, AI and XR, which is something our OEM customers look to us to deliver. Snapdragon 855 Plus is our most advanced mobile platform to date and will build upon the success of the 2019 Android flagship Snapdragon 855 5G mobile platform — Kedar Kondap, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

The Snapdragon 855 Plus also has an integrated Snapdragon X24 LTE 4G modem, in addition to the 4th generation multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine.

You can expect to see devices running on the Snapdragon 855 Plus platform in the second half of the year.