The Snapdragon camp was under fire recently due to the delay and an overall tension surrounding the 810 chipset, but it looks like Qualcomm have put that behind them, and if the recent leaks are anything to go by, we are in for a wild ride. Lets take a look at what exactly we have at our disposal as of now –
- Snapdragon 616 – This chipset will most likely succeed the 615, which is currently one of the best upper mid-range chipsets in the market. Any Good mid-ranger in the market runs on the 600 series, and 615 is a popular choice. The 616 however, will look to put an end to the 615, and though it will have the same eight Cortex A-53 cores like its predecessor, it will clock between 1.8 to 2.2 GHz, significantly more than the 615. The GPU will also see a likely bump up to the 408, thus making this new 616 chipset, a sure shot replacement for the 615. What I gather from this is that the smartphones in the future, will see better clock speeds, which means, the clock speeds we find in the flagships these days , will be handed down to the mid rangers, while the flagships themselves will get better fire power. In short- its going to be Good Bye PC in a few years.
- Snapdragon 620 – This chipset will be based on the ‘Taipan’ architecture, which is Qualcomm’s own architecture. The Chipset will reportedly feature four cores, and feature an Adreno 418 GPU, DDR3 RAM and CAT.10 LTE support.
- Snapdragon 625 and 629 – These two siblings will be octa core chips and feature the Adreno 418 GPU, like the 620. What is new in them is that they will feature the upgraded LPDDR4 RAM and will be based on the 20nm HKMG technology.
This is what has been leaked as far as the new 600 series lineup is considered. Things get interesting in the flagship 800 series.
- Snapdragon 815 – This beast of a chipset will reportedly feature eight cores in the big.Little setup. The Big.Little architecture is a heterogenous computing architecture developed by ARM holdings, coupling relatively slower, low power processor cores with more powerful, power hungry ones. The intention is to create a multi-core processor that can adjust better to dynamic computing needs while using comparatively less power than clock scaling alone. The 815 will feature an Adreno 450 GPU, and updated LPDDR4 RAM. This Chipset will also be based on the 20nm process.
- Snapdragon 820 – This is most certainly, the cream of the crop. If these leaks are true, then this chipset, will definitely go down in history as one of the best things to happen to mobile devices in terms of sheer performance. This Chipset will most likely feature eight TS2 cores. The big.Little setup seems to be absent in the leaked spec sheet, so that must be pointing to one deadly fact – All eight cores will most likely work simultaneously. RAM support and LTE models are same as the 815, but the GPU in the 820 chipset is reportedly a sizzling Adreno 530 – Hope you are reading this gamers!! Theres one more thing thats new in this chipset, and that is the 820 chipset will be manufactured based on the 14nm FinFET manufacturing process. Now, this process is licensed to GlobalFoundries, which might be busy manufacturing Apple’s new A9 chip towards the end of 2015, which means the 820 should see the light of the day in early 2016.
Before we get too excited, we must bear in mind that all these specs are just preliminary, and as to how much of this is really true remains to be seen. But if we do give this leak the benefit of doubt, and take for granted that this is what is upcoming from Qualcomm, then the mobile industry is en route to a whole new generation .