Leading mobile chipmaker Qualcomm is reportedly working in partnership with original equipment manufacturer (OEM) Samsung for its upcoming flagship chipset Snapdragon 820.
The company is taking advantage of Samsung's 14 nm production technology to avoid the thermal management issues encountered in the Snapdragon 810 processor and to reduce the chipset's power consumption. Qualcomm's savior Samsung had used the 14nm FinFET (Fin-Shaped Field Effect Transistor) manufacturing technique for its very efficient chipset Exynos 7420 that happens to be under the hood of the Samsung Galaxy S6.
Back in January 2015, reports started to surface that Qualcomm's next flagship chip Snapdragon 810 was having overheating problems that led to Samsung's pullout of the chipset's use on its then-soon-to-be-released flagship Galaxy S6. With Samsung's 14nm FinFET process, sources believe that the Snapdragon 820 will not have temperature issues or under clocking fixes that prevent Snapdragon 810-powered smartphones from realizing their full potential.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 reportedly features the company's own 64-Kyro architecture that clocks at 3.0 GHz, which is still not on overclocked mode. Mobile device manufacturers such Xiaomi, HTC and Sony and other manufacturers that use Qualcomm's chipsets will be the first to receive the initial batch of the new processors so they can incorporate it into their upcoming flagship smartphones.
If the manufacturers do not bump into any problems while implementing the new chip into their next-generation products, consumers may be able to purchase Snapdragon 820-powered devices late this year or early 2016.
According to some reports, Xiaomi's next flagship smartphone Xiaomi Mi 5 will be featuring the Snapdragon 820, complete with a custom ARMv8 CPU. Paired with 4 GB of RAM, Xiaomi Mi 5 will be available in 16 GB and 64 GB models. It will reportedly use Qualcomm's ultrasonic fingerprint authentication system and will be equipped with a 16-megapixel rear camera and an eight-megapixel front-facing shooter plus a USB Type-C charging port. The company is set to launch Xiaomi Mi 5 in November this year.
Photo: Kārlis Dambrāns | Flickr
