Qualcomm has unveiled its Snapdragon 855 mobile platform to enable commercial 5G networks and mobile devices in early 2019.

During a company event in Hawaii, Alex Katouzian, senior VP and GM of mobile for Qualcomm Technologies, claimed the new Snapdragon 855 chip delivers more performance than its existing counterparts.

The Snapdragon 855 mobile chip series supports multi-gigabit 5G, AI and immersive extended reality (XR) collectively, said Qualcomm.

The Snapdragon 855 SoC delivers on-device AI experiences driven by the fourth-generation, multi-core Qualcomm AI Engine, with up to three times the AI performance compared to the previous generation mobile platform. It also features a Computer Vision (CV) ISP to enable cutting-edge computational photography and video capture features.

Katouzian also announced Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor, which the company claims is the world's first commercial ultrasonic fingerprint solution supported under the display. This is the only mobile solution that can accurately detect fingerprints through numerous contaminants, said Qualcomm. Furthermore, this technology enables sleek, cutting-edge form factors while distinguishing itself from alternatives with higher levels of security and accuracy.

Also during the event, Justin Denison, senior VP of mobile product strategy and marketing for Samsung Electronics America, discussed Samsung's commitment to 5G including bringing the first flagship 5G smartphone to the US in the first half of 2019 using Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 mobile chip with 5G X50 modem. "5G will fuel collaboration, connectivity and productivity worldwide, and we're excited to be at the forefront working alongside partners like Qualcomm Technologies to make the transformation to 5G a reality," said Denison.

Qualcomm is uniquely positioned to propel 5G deployments with the Snapdragon 855 mobile platform, the Snapdragon X50 5G modem family and Qualcomm QTM052 mmWave antenna modules with integrated RF transceiver, RF front-end and antenna elements, according to Qualcomm president Cristiano Amon. Qualcomm will help its OEM partners address the exponential increase in device design complexity that comes with 5G in both sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands.