Lenovo Leaks Details Of New Flagship Phone For 2021 As Snapdragon 895 Rumors Circulate

While that news might not seem all that interesting on the surface, we must mention that the flagship will use Qualcomm's latest flagship SoC, which has not yet been announced. As a result, the smartphone could use one of two SoCs, with one being more likely than the other.

The first [and most likely] possibility is a refresh of the existing Snapdragon 888 that launched earlier this year. Flagship Snapdragon SoCs typically get a "Plus" variant during the second half of their launch year, bringing greater performance (i.e., SD855+ and SD865+). So, it stands to reason that Qualcomm could launch a Snapdragon 888+ in devices like this Lenovo smartphone or the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Galaxy Z Flip 3.

However, a second, less likely possibility is that this new flagship Lenovo smartphone could use the rumored Snapdragon 895. Previous reports have indicated that the SoC carries the internal designation SM8450. But a late 2021 launch for Lenovo would be rather curious, given that [all-new] flagship Qualcomm SoCs typically debut in Q1 of each year, with Samsung being among the first to launch new smartphones using the new chips.

Not only would Qualcomm need to pull in its release timetable by a month or so for the Snapdragon 895, but Lenovo would likely be the very first OEM to use the chip. However, we think this scenario is improbable -- especially given the current global chip crunch -- so we'll stick with our Snapdragon 888+ assessment.

With that said, Evan Blass gave us the full feature rundown earlier this month on the Snapdragon 895. The chip will reportedly use a new 4nm process node and feature a new Kryo 780 CPU that uses Arm's newly announced Cortex v9 architecture. In addition, the CPU is backed by an Adreno 730 GPU and a Spectra 680 ISP. The Snapdragon 888 was the first flagship SoC from Qualcomm to feature an integrated 5G modem (Snapdragon X60), and the Snapdragon 895 will continue those efforts with an integrated Snapdragon X65. In addition, the Snapdragon X65 supports sub-6GHz and mmWave bands, offering peak downlink speeds of 10 Gbps (the Snapdragon X60 tops out at 7.5 Gbps).

But as with any rumors concerning unreleased products, we must take this leak with a grain of salt. MWC 2021 kicks off this week, so perhaps we will see new information from Qualcomm and Lenovo at that time regarding new flagship products.