The American global semiconductor company Qualcomm recently revealed the latest mobile device processor unit chip, the Snapdragon 810, meant to be hosted in 2015’s new flagship smartphones and tablets. It was first announced in April 2014, along with rumors of how the 810 model was going to mark several milestones in the industry. Now that the secret is out, Qualcomm is making a statement about the company’s attempt to bring mobile devices closer than ever to desktops and gaming consoles.
The latest chip revealed by the producer is designed for premium tablets and mobile phones destined primarily for devices coming out in early 2015. The company’s course of action was different for this upgrade, in comparison to previous ones. Instead of the regular focus on speed upgrades, Qualcomm decided to take a detour and focus on developing other applications of the Snapdragon 810.
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They have stated that the company has started viewing the market from a different angle – instead of focusing on just making their chips faster, they have started working on improving the technology as a whole and plan to make a move towards other gadgets in the future. Qualcomm might become a name present in not just mobile phones and tablets, but we soon might be seeing it in cars, home appliances, servers, wearables such as health trackers and smartwatches and much more. So by designing and pushing forwards in the area of LTE chipsets, Qualcomm is also developing into an Intel-dominated market, relying on a different, completely new perspective that might change the future of cloud storage prices.
But back to our main focus here – the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810. Its promised features are a surprising leap upwards from its predecessors, the Snapdragon 805 and Snapdragon 808 SoC that have found their way in this year’s market leading smartphones and tablets, along with Apple’s Ax processing technology.
The chip’s goal is not just being faster, but brings a staggering improvement on battery life and supports 4K video in its entirety. It is officially the first 64-bit processor developed and put in practice that will finally allow the RAM capacities on handheld mobile devices to leap forward, starting with 4 GB of memory and above.
Here is a short, basic overview over what the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 launches will be bringing us start 2015:
- Superior camera: better photos and camera features, like UbiFocus and ChromaFlash and HDR video;
- Better video: Ultra HD capture and playback at low power;
- New ways to interact: voice activation, ultrasound pen, gestures;
- Superior modem 3x20MHz Carrier Aggregation with CAT6 at 300Mbps;
- Better GPS: low cost and low power integration supporting global constellations;
- Faster WiFi Speeds: 2-stream 802.11ac;
- Longer battery life: 20nm process, LPDDR4 Memory, Advanced Power Management, Advanced Packaging
- Higher Performace: Optimized ARMv8/64-bit Adreno 430;
- Superior voice quality: HD voice, FluenceTM noise cancellation.
The Snapdragon 810 chipset has moved on from the usual Krait CPUs and uses ARM’s big.little architecture and is comprised of a combination of four Cortex-A57 cores that run at an approximate 2GHz speed and four Cortex-A53 cores at 1.55GHz. While Qualcomm has made it known that they believe in the concept that says the efficiency / quality ratio is much more important than number of cores, they don’t seem to be backing off from packing octa-core components in their technology.
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The combination of 2 types of cores gives the host device the ability to switch between 2 cores when it is required in order to hold a symmetry between power and stability. This is the reason Qualcomm is adopting this technology, which in essence ultimately improves battery life for the device. The battery life is really one of the most considerable challenges mobile devices have to deal with these days, in their transition into fully capable computer-replacing gadgets.
So what is Qualcomm’s take on graphics? Well, the Snapdragon 810 also features an Adreno 430 GPU for some pretty outstanding capabilities and a recorded 30 percent improve in graphics performance over the previous model. The GPU is stated to support programmable blending, geometry shaders and OpenGL ES 3.1 hardware tessellation, which – together with the octa-core Snapdragon 810 – would increase the graphics performance but also reduce power consumption by nearly 20 percent.
What this entails is that the gaming market would be given ample possibilities to expand overnight into the mobile market starting with the launch of more and more Snapdragon 810 and subsequent models of the processing unit. All this could ultimately mean smart devices could be making a transition into portable, half-sized gaming gear sometime into the future.
Considering the chip also supports 4k video means both recording and streaming video directly to a big-screen TV but also gives mobile device developers the possibility of incorporating much sharper image screens in their devices. The video processor is the first of its kind to incorporate a hardware H.265 encoder that finally gives the Snapdragon 810 the edge in both capturing and driving a 4k screen. High detail, richer pictures, and delivering 4k video at 30 FPS (frames per second) is possible via the new technology.
Recording can also be done at 1080p video quality, and in that case could reach up to 120 frames per second. In what concerns the camera power that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 will be able to bring to the market is 14-bit camera dual image signal processors which only means full HDR video and camera sensors that could be going as high as 55 megapixels.
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One of the other new features that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 takes on is the bandwidth capabilities it brings. It adds support for LTE Category 9 Carrier Aggregation connectivity. In other words and based on what we have seen so far, the processor will be able to push the limits of mobile downloading speed up to 300 Mbps over three 20 MHz LTE carriers.
his is a considerable increase from its previous Snapdragon 805 model that can, at this point, only go as far as 150 Mbps. However, this 100 percent increase in download speed does not only rely on hardware potential, but also on carriers and their supported maximum data transfer speed. Qualcomm announced in a statement that this will be the first premium tier 64-bit processor to enable LTE Advanced globally with a single design
The original demonstration of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset was made on a custom designed reference tablet-like device only available to developers, but seized the opportunity to showcase another interesting trait of the possibilities that Snapdragon 810-powered devices would be bringing in the new year. What we are talking about here is the Corephotonics’ dual-lens camera which opens the path to optical zooming in mobile devices.
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Digital zoom, which is the technique incorporated by most devices these days simply relies on in-camera image processing by enlarging the image area of choice, at the cost of image resolution and quality. Optical zoom however relies on the same technology film cameras use, but has until now been relatively limited in small devices such as smartphones and tablets. Ever since this year’s Mobile World Congress, Qualcomm has discussed the chances of making this technology available through their products and now, it seems that it’s nearly ready to go live.
With the zoom lens, a camera could achieve a 3x zoom in photos without losing any quality or crispness of the photo. So firstly, we learned that we are dealing with a potential replacement for gaming gear, now cameras. And this is only the beginning, so what’s next?
As a last addition to the seemingly endless possibilities of the Snapdragon 810 comes the audio versatility that it would bring. The fact that it supports Dolby’s new mobile Atmos sound technology, giving way to simulating surround sound in headsets is one of them. Voice commands are given some priority as well, the sensors picking up more and being constantly online, even if the display is turned off.
Sound and video recording in places where background noise is present is also made easier. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 implements the ability to suppress background noise automatically by only pointing the hosting smartphone or tablet towards the source and taking over from there.
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So now comes the greatest question, being murmured on every person’s lips: which phones and tablets will be incorporating the new Snapdragon 810? The year is nearly over and companies are wrapping up tablet production, settling for reaping the benefits of 2014’s great results. We have had an amount of impressive tablet names come out this year, such as the iPad Air 2, the Samsung Galaxy Tab S, Google’s Nexus 9, and native hybrids such as the Microsoft Surface Pro 3 and ASUS Transformer Book T100 – which proved in a nonchalant finger snap that tablets are the future and probable replacement of laptops.
However, until further announcements (or leaks, why not?), there’s no telling yet whether the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 will be honoring any tablet release in the next few months. In what concerns smartphones, we know a couple of things.
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Once again, this information relies on official statements and announcements, leaks but also common sense and deduction. While the enigmatic reply from the company was that the new chip will be hosted in early 2015 releases does not exactly give out any certain names, we can go as far as figuring out which actual releases it could be referring to. Three of the largest titles that stand out and on the way to the market in 2015’s first semester are the Samsung Galaxy S6, HTC One M9 and Sony Xperia Z4. Should you be excited? Definitely, since they will be the first of their kind to incorporate the power of the new-generation processing unit.
Samsung Galaxy S6
A 5.5” 2,560 x 1,440 Quad High Definition display awaits in the Samsung Galaxy S6, sporting a display resolution with a 16:9 aspect ratio with 4 times as many pixels as the 720p HDTV video standard. Powered by the Snapdragon 810, it will be getting 4 GB of RAM, a 20 megapixel rear camera and a 5 megapixel front facing one.
The Galaxy S6 will be coming with 3 storage size variants, either 32 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB of space, not giving up the microSD slot either, giving users an impressive amount of space for your apps, music, photos, videos and anything else you could think of.
The feature that has stirred most enthusiastic turmoil in the world of smartphones however is the Galaxy S6’s rumored design. Attempted before in the Galaxy Note 4 Edge and originally planned for the phablet but partially scrapped at the last moment is the curved edge screen.
The experimental technology could be put to use at a higher potential in the S6, giving the phone 2 strips of curved glass on the sides that will give way to new directions in phone developing in the future. We do not yet know whether the curved edge design is a main feature of the S6 or whether the smartphone will be coming in two variants, both regular and curved, just like the Galaxy Note 4.
HTC One M9
Early December leaks speak of a new HTC model, also known as HTC Hima. The message was short and cramped and packed a series of impressive stats and features. Expected to be brought to all the carriers in the United States sometime in March next year, is a powerful successor to the M8 model that will make the best of the new Android 5.0 Lollipop operating system as well.
It is rumored to be bringing us 3 GB of RAM, a 5.2 inch display with FHD resolution, either 64 or 128 GB of storage space and a 2,840 mAh battery.
The HTC One M9 might be the first to experiment with Snapdragon 810’s camera-related capabilities as it is rumored to be bringing a 13 megapixel or UltraPixel 4MP front camera, along with the 20.7 megapixel rear camera.
Sony Xperia Z4
The third title in the flagship device category scheduled for “early 2015” releases is a 5.5 inch screen display that also makes use of the QHD 2,560 x 1,440 resolution. The RAM records are also pushed with the new Sony Xperia Z4, also said to be getting no less than 4 GB of memory.
Storage will be getting some attention too, going up to 32 GB of internal storage over the regular 16 GB. No news on a front facing camera, but the regular one will not be going below the 20.7 megapixel usual. Android Origin rumors are suggesting that the Xperia Z4 will be dedicating audio some extra grams of attention, including in its construction a dedicated amp, with a strong stress on audio quality.