It’s day one of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit, and we’re on the ground on Wailea, Maui, Hawaii to bring you all the latest. We’ll have coverage throughout the week. If you’d prefer to get the word directly from the mouth of the beast as well, you can stream the main keynotes every day this week — Tuesday through Thursday.
Qualcomm has today announced its latest fingerprint sensor, the 3D Sonic Max. This fingerprint sensor is the followup to last year’s 3D Sonic Sensor, and the most important thing that makes it different from last year’s model is that it’s… a lot bigger — 17 times bigger to be exact.
We’re here in Maui, and Qualcomm has today announced its latest flagship smartphone system-on-a-chip, the Snapdragon 865. They also announced a couple of mid-range chips by the names of Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 765G, respectively.
Expand
Expanding
Close
It’s very clear at this point that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset wasn’t the savior that Wear OS needed in the hardware department. However, we’re now learning more about Qualcomm’s next chipset for Wear OS, and the “Snapdragon Wear 3300” could be a pretty big improvement.
The Pixel 4 leaks keep flowing, but in some of today’s other stories, we’ve got new earbuds from Nokia, news regarding next year’s 5G, and more.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 855 powers the majority of the flagship Android smartphones on the market today, but for the second half of the year, it’s getting a slight revision. The new Snapdragon 855 Plus promises a bit more power overall, as well as bringing a faster GPU for phones coming out in late 2019.
One of the biggest problems that Google’s Wear OS faces is the hardware it’s running on. Essentially since its debut in 2014, almost every smartwatch has run on old hardware. Even the Snapdragon Wear 3100 released just last year reused the same core design from a 2013 chip. Now, though, Qualcomm appears to be preparing a new Snapdragon Wear chip, possibly called the “429” for future Wear OS hardware.
Qualcomm powers a huge number of Android smartphones, including those that cost very little to consumers. Today, the Qualcomm 215 Mobile Platform has gone official, and it promises some major gains for ultra-affordable smartphones.
Chromium development work has commenced on a second Chromebook powered by one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors, under the dragon-related codename “Trogdor.”
Wear OS as a platform is, at least in my eyes, pretty decent. What holds it back is battery life and slow hardware. Back when the Snapdragon Wear 3100 launched, Qualcomm said it would deliver a “Sports Mode” which would deliver up to 15 hours of battery during athletic tracking on Wear OS. Apparently, that’s still coming… eventually.
The first Google Assistant headphones arrived in 2017 with the Bose QuietComfort 35 II and Pixel Buds later that year. Several headphones from Sony and JBL have launched since then, while Google introduced new features like real-time translation. Qualcomm today announced Assistant and Fast Pair support in its Smart Headset chips that will make it easier for device makers to create Google-compatible headsets.
Last December, Qualcomm announced its flagship Snapdragon 855 to power 2019’s top-end devices. The chipmaker today announced that features found on that premium SoC are coming down to the mid and high-range with the Snapdragon 665, 730, and 730G.
As the smart speaker market continues to heat up, Qualcomm is jumping into the ring to provide a new chipset for OEMs to use. The new Qualcomm QSC400 makes some big promises for future products, here’s what you need to know.
A Qualcomm executive has made claims that we could see smartphones that pack 64-megapixel and 100-megapixel+ camera sensors as early as the end of 2019.
Qualcomm has a strong presence at MWC 2019, with their chips powering many of the biggest newly announced devices. As phones are continuing to shift away from traditional wired charging to wireless charging, Qualcomm is also updating their Quick Charge technology to be compatible with Qi and other wireless chargers.
Qualcomm has unveiled the latest in its constantly growing chipset platform in the form of the Snapdragon 712. It offers increased performance, support for QuickCharge 4.0+, and improved Bluetooth audio among a few other minor improvements.
Expand
Expanding
Close
Last year, Qualcomm announced the chipset that we’re going to see in most of the flagship Android phones in 2019 – the Snapdragon 855. This morning, several outlets have published benchmarking scores for that new chip, and it’s a promising tease for what to expect in our next phones.
This week Qualcomm is taking over Maui with an event to talk about its brand new Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor. On stage at the event, OnePlus CEO Pete Lau confirmed that in 2019, OnePlus will launch the first smartphone with a Snapdragon 855 on board.
After officially unveiling the Snapdragon 855 yesterday, Qualcomm today is fully detailing the specs for its next-generation chip specs for 2019 Android flagships. The processor focuses on adding 5G support to phones, as well as improved artificial intelligence and mixed reality experiences.
With 2018’s high-end smartphones announced and widely available, Qualcomm is gearing up for the next cycle of launches. At the 3rd annual Snapdragon Tech Summit, the chipmaker announced the Snapdragon 855 that will power 2019 flagships.
After months of anticipation, Qualcomm finally made its new Snapdragon Wear 3100 chipset official, and it’s a huge deal for the Wear OS world — mostly because it’s been years since the last chip. We’ve already covered Qualcomm’s big announcement, but there are a few tidbits you might have missed, so let’s take a look at a few smaller, but important details.
Qualcomm’s next wearable processor is set to power the upcoming generation of Wear OS smartwatches. In addition to detailing specs, performance, and new features this morning, the chipmaker announced that Fossil Group, Montblanc, and Louis Vuitton will launch the first Snapdragon Wear 3100 devices.
At an event today in San Francisco, Qualcomm officially unveiled the long-rumored next entry in its latest wearable platform, the Snapdragon Wear 3100. This chipset makes a lot of big promises for the future of wearables, so let’s take a look at everything that’s new.
As the headphone jack disappears, we’re all counting on wireless audio to fill the gap. Today, Qualcomm is announcing its latest way to make Bluetooth audio better, aptX Adaptive.
