The latest upgrade from chipmaker Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 855, was unveiled yesterday. The American company launched their Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform, the first of a new generation of mobile phone processor chips that will power 5G smartphones in the United States as early as next year. The key feature of the latest chip is the 5G Snapdragon X50 modem, which enables phones to connect to 5G wireless data networks.

These networks offer “multi-gigabit” mobile data speeds of up to 50 or 100 times faster than current 4G networks. Qualcomm, the largest supplier of mobile phone chips, said Snapdragon 855 would power Samsung 5G smartphones that Verizon Communications and Samsung said on Monday would be released in the United States in the first half of 2019, a NTDV Gadgets report says. More details about the SoC will be unveiled at the annual Snapdragon Technology Summit in Hawaii.

Additionally, the new chipset is said to feature the company’s fourth generation, multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine, with up to three times the AI performance than the previous generation mobile platform. Qualcomm also said the Snapdragon 855 would feature the world’s first Computer Vision (CV) ISP to also enable help phones to recognise objects and faces, and power new video capture features.

Finally, it would support a new Qualcomm ultrasonic fingerprint sensor, called Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor, that can read a user’s fingerprint through the glass screen of a smartphone. “This is the only mobile solution that can accurately detect fingerprints through numerous contaminants. Furthermore, this technology enables sleek, cutting-edge form factors while distinguishing itself from alternatives with higher levels of security and accuracy,” the company said in its blog post.