The 810 came after the 800 and the 820 came after the 810. You’d expect that the series would go 830 then 840. Qualcomm, however, jump from 820 to 835 to 845. The next one after that will be 8150. Confused yet? You won’t be alone but that might be the marketing that Qualcomm will be employing when it unveils its next premium mobile platform, the Snapdragon 8150, not the Snapdragon 855.
Microsoft’s and Qualcomm’s campaign to get Windows 10 running on ARM-based Snapdragon chips has mostly fallen flat on its face. While the idea of power efficient, always on, and always connected PCs is undoubtedly tempting, the execution was sorely lacking, especially when it came to banking on last year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. The new Snapdragon 850 aims to correct that, presuming it goes in actual commercial products, but it will be the Snapdragon 1000, a.k.a. Snapdragon 8180, that may finally make those dreams come true.
Time waits for no-one, and in smartwatch terms that means the Qualcomm Snapdragon 3100 is long overdue. The latest chipset for Wear OS by Google wearables, it picks up where its predecessor left off, only with the promise of better performance, more flexible displays, and significantly longer battery life. Read on for five things you need to know.
Verizon made their first-ever 5G NR call on a commercial network with a simulated smartphone device. Verizon's most recent test in the 5G space also tipped a hat to its side-news launch of 5G residential broadband service in four US markets. This Verizon 5G news came right on the heels of AT&T's big 5G announcement at AT&T Spark - they'll be expanding in a big way, too.
This morning at AT&T Spark, the mobile data company named a bunch of cities to which it planned to bring 5G data speeds. This comes on top of news that AT&T deployed its first mobile 5G cell site and expanded its 5G reach from its first 7 cities to an additional 5, all inside the year 2018. Come 2019, AT&T's reach with 5G will spread to a bunch more cities across the United States.
Montblanc has revealed its newest smartwatch, the Summit 2, powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset. Announced in San Francisco, CA today, the Summit 2 follows the original Summit luxury smartwatch, launched back in early 2017.
Qualcomm promised some big news in smartwatch chips, and the Snapdragon Wear 3100 is just that. Bringing a long-awaited update to the company's wearable-focused silicon, the new platform promises to be more powerful and more power-efficient, with a number of big names in smartwatches already signed on.
Lenovo has revealed a new Windows on Snapdragon notebook, the Lenovo Yoga C630, its first always-on, always-connected Yoga convertible and the first to use the Snapdragon 850. Revealed at IFA 2018 today, the 13.3-inch ultraportable promises the potential of more than 25 hours of battery life, more than enough to get you through a full day.
Qualcomm will shift to a new 7nm system-on-chip design for its next, 5G-capable flagship mobile platform, though the company isn't quite ready to spill the beans completely on what it has planned. The new SoC - which Qualcomm says it expects to be the first 5G-capable mobile platform for premium-tier smartphones and more - is currently sampling to device partners.
While the idea definitely had lots of appeal, Microsoft’s Windows 10 on ARM, specifically on Snapdragon, fell flat on its face during its first generation. It was largely attributed to performance problems which was, in turn, attributed to the not-so-recent Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 used in that first batch. Back in June, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 850 that would fix that mistake. Benchmark sightings, however, aren’t exactly encouraging.
Mid-range, or as Qualcomm would call them “high-end”, smartphones are killing it. While majority of media coverage is lavished on premium smartphones with premium prices and eccentric designs, devices on the middle tiers continue to offer better bang for buck value when it comes to balancing performance, battery life, and price. That’s why it’s no surprise that Qualcomm continues to saturate the market with chips on this range, like the newly announced Snapdragon 670, that is going to give OEMs a headache in trying picking out a chip for their next-gen phones.
It’s probably a bad time to launch a new smartwatch these next few weeks, unless you’re Samsung or Apple. That’s because any smartwatch you put into the market will be running on a mobile platform that is effectively two years old. Even older if you consider that the Snapdragon Wear 2100 is based on a modified Snapdragon 400 chipset. And in about 30 days, that wearable processor will be rendered obsolete now that Qualcomm itself is teasing when the long-overdue successor, tentatively known as the Snapdragon Wear 3100, will be unveiled.