Finally, we have Qualcomm's new and all-powerful chip that will try to improve upon what we saw in the 810 , which, although it had superior performance, was ultimately undone by its overheating problems, leading even Samsung to remove this chip from its brand-new Galaxy S6 and replace it with one of its own making, such as its Exynos.
After several rumors and teasers that really got our mouths watering, Qualcomm has just officially announced the new Snapdragon 820 chip, its new flagship processor for mobile devices. This Snapdragon 820 SoC includes a new Kryo CPU that will have twice the performance and efficiency of the Snapdragon 810. The quad-core Kryo is built on a 14nm FinFET process and can be configured to clock speeds of up to 2.2 GHz. A true powerhouse for next year, and one that we'll likely see included in Samsung's new Galaxy S7, which is scheduled to launch in January 2016.
Doubling the performance of the 810
This news about the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 is of great importance for the development of new mobile phones arriving next year, which will try to avoid becoming a hot potato like the HTC One M9 with the first version of the 810, which suffered from abnormal and unacceptable overheating. Fortunately, Qualcomm released a revision that has appeared in the new Xperia Z5 and others like the OnePlus 2, which performs better and doesn't generate as much heat when the device is under heavy use with games and various apps that utilize that CPU.
With this announcement, Qualcomm is also encouraging us to learn about the Snapdragon 820's GPU, which is the Adreno 520. It is expected to offer a 40 percent improvement in graphics performance, computing capabilities, and energy efficiency compared to the Adreno 430 GPU included in the Snapdragon 810.
This chip also includes an LTE X12 chip that offers support for download speeds of up to 600 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 150 Mbps, along with LTE-U, 4×4 MIMO and VoLTE, and uses the Zeroth platform to analyze Wi-Fi quality to determine when to switch from an LTE call to a Wi-Fi call and back.
With Quick Charge 3.0
This new chip includes a notable feature: support for Quick Charge 3.0 , the latest version of Qualcomm's fast-charging technology. When used with a compatible charger, a device equipped with Quick Charge 3.0 can charge from 0 to 80 percent in as little as 35 minutes.
The first smartphones to arrive with the Snapdragon 820 are expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2016. However, we'll have to wait to test this new chip in a new device, since, based on Qualcomm's announcement, everything sounds very promising. We already know how the 810 was one of the major obstacles to developing better smartphones last year, as some had to be throttled in the software to prevent overheating.
What we can expect is that half of Samsung's new Galaxy S7 phones will come with the new Snapdragon 820 chip, while the other half will use the Exynos 8890. Samsung engineers are already assisting with the production of the new 14nm chip to ensure everything is perfect for the new Galaxy S7, which looks set to be the next Android powerhouse, judging by its camera capabilities and the improvements it promises over the Galaxy S6.
Let's review the features of the Snapdragon 820 chip before we go:
- X12 LTE Modem (LTE Cat-12 downstream and LTE Cat-13 upstream)
- Adreno 530 GPU (40% faster than Adreno 430) with Epic Games Unreal Engine 4
- Custom 64-bit Kyro Processor Cores and In-House Manufacture
- Hexagon 680 digital signal processor
- 14-bit Qualcom Spectra ISP to enhance images and enable dual cameras
- Unique Features of the Qualcomm Zeroth Platform
- Qualcomm Snapdragon Smart Protect to detect security holes
So all we can do is wait to see the first benchmarks and how those overheating problems of the 810 have evaporated in this new 820, which will give full potential to high-end Android devices for this year 2016 that is already upon us.