Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 system-on-chip (SoC) is now available in a range of flagship-class smartphones, such as the OnePlus 2 and HTC's One M9. Other high-end handsets will get the 810 too, including Google's latest Nexus hardware, and at least one of Microsoft's new Lumia range-toppers.
Earlier this year, the company began teasing its next-generation SoC, the Snapdragon 820, promising some big leaps ahead in its technology. And while the 820 still isn't quite ready for primetime, Qualcomm is nonetheless continuing to ramp up the hype around its new chipset.
Only a few days ago, Qualcomm was talking up the 'Smart Protect' technology that it's baked into the 820 with the aim of boosting defenses against mobile malware. Now, it's making some pretty impressive claims about how it's managed to improve performance and power management in the new SoC.
Qualcomm says that these improvements have been made possible by its new processor. The Snapdragon 820 ditches the Krait CPU found in many earlier Qualcomm SoCs, replacing it with 'Kryo', the company's first custom-designed 64-bit quad-core CPU. The new Kryo CPU combines with the latest Adreno 530 GPU and Hexagon 680 DSP (digital signal processor, for offloading low-intensity, low-power tasks from the CPU) to offer massive leaps in performance.
Qualcomm proudly boasts that the Snapdragon 820's architecture means it is "able to meet the needs of consumers without compromising on performance or battery life", adding:
Higher performance is often at odds with longer battery life—but that’s what we’ve engineered into the first generation of Kryo.
Kryo is being manufactured on the latest 14nm FinFET technology and is designed to reach speeds up to 2.2 GHz. With Kryo CPU and Snapdragon 820, you can expect up to 2 times the performance and up to 2 times the power efficiency when compared with the Snapdragon 810 processor.
Qualcomm's claim that the Snapdragon 820 will provide up to twice as much performance and battery life as the 810 is a remarkable one indeed - particularly when you consider that many buyers of flagship phones are quick to complain about how quickly they run out of juice.
For now, Qualcomm's claims remain unchecked, as the Snapdragon 820 isn't yet available in any devices - but the first ones should go on sale in the first half of next year, and it sounds like they may well be worth the wait.
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