The All-New Snapdragon 820 Will Turn Your Next Phone Into A Power Beast

Qualcomm has officially unveiled the Snapdragon 820 – the processor it believes will power the next generation of top-end mobile devices.

Featuring entirely new components from top the bottom, Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon 820 will enable “a more immersive, intuitive and connected experience” when it begins shipping in devices sometime next year.

Boosted

The Snapdragon 820 features entirely new and custom-made components, including the modem, CPU and GPU.

All of these components will allow a whole new range of experiences on your mobile device, making it a heavyweight entertainment, gaming and work device.

The new X12 LTE modem means that any device powered by the chip will be able to support LTE Cat 12 networks, allowing download speeds of up to 600Mbps, making your smartphone or tablet faster than ever and allowing for smooth streaming of online video or gaming.

The quad-core 64-bit Kryo CPU is an entirely new offering from Qualcomm, marking the company’s first 14nm build and providing hugely improved speeds of up to 2.2Ghz, with lower power consumption than ever. There are also improvements in battery life, as the Snapdragon 820 lowers power consumption by 30 percent over previous generations, and thanks to Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0 technology can charge a typical phone from zero to 80 percent in about 35 minutes.

The Snapdragon 820 also features greatly improved video and audio functions, including by 4K Ultra HD video capture and playback, all powered by a new Adreno 530 GPU provides up to 40 percent better graphics and compute performance than the previous generation including in the Snapdragon 810.

This allows for in-depth and lifelike virtual reality experiences, Qualcomm claims, all boosted by a 360-dgree audio capability that can really immerse you in the middle of a game or film.

“All of these engineering enhancements support the immersion and intelligence that will enable completely new and intuitive experiences in your smartphone,” Tim McDonough, Qualcomm’s vice president of marketing, wrote in a blog post announcing the launch.

“For those who think smartphone innovation has peaked, keep an eye out for new smartphones powered by Snapdragon 820 next year.”

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