Do you care which processor is inside your smartphone? An insider tip this week suggested that the next Google smartphone, the Google Pixel 5, will work with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 765. For some users, that's a big deal - but why? Let's take a peek at what that piece of hardware is, what it'll do, and why it might be the make-or-break point for prospective consumers.
Some, especially governments, live by a "tit for tat" philosophy so it's really no surprise that China wants to hit the US back. The latter has not only extended Huawei's fate as part of the government's entity list, the US Department of Commerce has also made moves to deprive the phone maker of much-needed access to semiconductors for its processors. Since negotiations seem to have broken down, China is now threatening to respond in kind and put US companies on its own upcoming "unreliable entity list".
Qualcomm has launched a new midrange gaming-focused smartphone chipset, with the Snapdragon 768G promising 5G along with a speed boost and features cherry-picked from the flagship Snapdragon 865. It's the latest in the Snapdragon series to bear the "G" suffix, which Qualcomm has used to denote its gamer-friendly chips for players on a tighter budget.
After being left in the sidelines for a while now, MediaTek has burst back into the mobile scene to take on Qualcomm at its own game. It launched its Dimensity line of systems-on-chip (SoCs) with a focus on 5G and affordability. Now it is attempting to take another stab at diminishing Qualcomm's market share with the Dimensity 1000+ which packs the 5G chip directly inside the same package. In other words, it is MediaTek's version of the Snapdragon 865.
When OnePlus launched the OnePlus X in 2015, it deviated from its numerical sequence to deliver a mid-range version of its flagship. It will apparently be repeating history with the OnePlus Z, carrying last year's specs to 2020 but with a slight difference. Unlike the OnePlus X, the OnePlus Z has been leaked to use a mid-range processor rather than an older high-end one. That may still be the case but, apparently, it won't be a MediaTek 5G chip.
Superfast charging is one of the hot things among smartphone makers these days but, for the longest time ever, the only one offering such a technology was Qualcomm. These days, the chip maker's Quick Charge has largely been overtaken by the likes of OPPO's SuperVOOC or even OnePlus' Warp Charge but those are often only reserved for more expensive, higher-end phones. Qualcomm is now reassuring customers and users of its "mid-range" platforms that they, too, will now reap some fast charging benefits thanks to Quick Charge 3+.
Qualcomm is arguably the biggest name in the mobile processor market. Although Apple may actually best it in benchmarks and in practice, that victory is pointless for anyone outside of Apple's ecosystem. So when Qualcomm's name gets dragged into any scandal, the mobile market definitely takes a closer look. Unsurprisingly, the US-based chipmaker isn't keeping quiet and is categorically denying it is doing any sort of whitelisting to cheat benchmark apps.
For years, Samsung Mobile has been dancing between two mobile processors, the Snapdragon chips from Qualcomm as well as the Exynos from its own sibling, Samsung Electronics LSI. In the past, the difference between the two chips in the same phone models hasn't been that noticeably but that gap seems to be getting wider and wide. Matters have seemed to come to a head this year with the Galaxy S20 and its Snapdragon 865 and Exynos 990 variants. According to benchmarks and user testing, the two couldn't be further apart in terms of performance.
Qualcomm has revealed its next-generation audio SoCs for truly wireless earbuds, and if you've been considering a set of AirPods Pro or similar, you may want to wait until later in the year. The Qualcomm QCC514x and QCC304x Bluetooth chipsets for earbuds promise features like integrated active noise cancelation, lower power requirements, and support for voice assistants like Alexa and the Google Assistant.
Today the Black Shark 3 PRO was revealed in full, complete with physical button shoulder triggers. This device is made for mobile (Android-based) gaming, and comes prepared for all the game streaming action you'll very possibly be enjoying in 2020. Instead of connecting a 3rd-party hardware controller, this device itself is the controller - sort of like you've got a Nintendo Switch, without all the Nintendo.
5G is big in mobile but that's not the only place it'll be in, naturally. Desktop and laptop computers are also fair game but only if they have the hardware to slurp from that high-speed network. Most will use external peripherals but Qualcomm is, of course, pushing a new breed of Always On, Always Connected PCs that this year will gain the ability to tap into 5G networks. And to reassure future buyers that they will be getting their money's worth, the chipmaker is listing which network operators will be supporting Snapdragon-powered 5G PCs when they launch this year.
Qualcomm has revealed its newest 5G mixed reality headset reference design based on the Snapdragon XR2, a wirelessly-connected VR and AR shortcut for manufacturers to bring new models to market. While it may look a whole lot like the XR1 reference design, this new version adds in 5G connectivity and higher-resolution displays, among other improvements.