Samsung’s Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ may have just debuted, but that isn’t stopping Samsung from already working on the Galaxy S9. Well, at least one component for it. According to a recent report, Samsung and Qualcomm have started work on next year’s Snapdragon 845 chipset, which will make its debut in the Galaxy S9.
Update: Apparently, the devices in question are in fact not Nokia’s, nor they actually have anything to do with the Finnish company. As per a video from WinFuture’s channel (in German), it looks like these are simply reference design phones made by Qualcomm itself. All in all, now that I can see the whole thing better, I’m just glad it’s that way. Hopefully February’s announcement will bring some excitement.
We reported yesterday about Nokia‘s likely intention to unveil a flagship Android smartphone outside of China on February 26, a day before the beginning of this year’s Mobile World Congress. However, it looks like the cat may already be out of the bag.
As it turns out, Nokia’s trojan horse back into the smartphone world was present at CES, albeit in disguise. The alleged ‘Nokia 8’ was showcased at Qualcomm‘s booth, where the company asked people not to take photos of it. Of course, however, someone did (via GSM Arena)…
With one of the first keynotes of CES 2017, Qualcomm has officially launched the Snapdragon 835. Slated for this year’s wave of Android devices, users can expect a 20% jump in various CPU tasks, increased energy efficiency, and support for Quick Charge 4.0.
Qualcomm has inadvertently published a press release today about the yet-to-be-announced ASUS ZenFone AR. Billed as the world’s first device to be both Tango-enabled and Daydream-ready, it is powered by the Snapdragon 821.
This follows a leak yesterday that revealed the majority of specs and performance details for the forthcoming Snapdragon 835, and a tweet earlier today from ASUS suggesting that it will launch a phone with the new SoC…
With the Qualcomm processor slated for the next generation of Android smartphones expected to launch at CES 2017, leaked slides have revealed specs and performance of the Snapdragon 835. Notable for shrinking the die from 14nm to 10nm, the GPU should provide a 20% performance increase for VR…
Back in June, Meizu — known for interesting designs and high specs at low prices — was sued by Qualcomm for refusing to pay licensing fees. The two companies have since settled (via Bloomberg), with four lawsuits around the world coming to a close and Meizu agreeing to license its usage of various tech.
Qualcomm, the company behind the Snapdragon processor found in most popular Android phones, is being fined more that $850 million in South Korea over alleged antitrust violations. According to Reuters, the company plans to fight the decision.
There are a lot of Chromebook models on the market, but the vast majority use Intel’s various processors. We’ve seen some other chipsets used, but we’ve yet to see an option packing Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors which are more than capable of running the lightweight Chrome OS. Why is that?
If you pick up an Android smartphone today, odds are it’s running on top of a chipset from Qualcomm. The company’s popular Snapdragon processor lineup has been used on many Android smartphones and tablets for years now, and for good reason. The chips are reliable and perform well, along with bringing compatibility with certain exclusive features. One of those is Qualcomm Quick Charge, one of, if not the most popular charging standard available today. Now, that standard is getting an upgrade.
Qualcomm is currently hosting the 4G/5G summit in Hong Kong and has announced three new Snapdragon processors: the 653, 626, and 427. These three new chips come with Qualcomm’s brand new X9 LTE modem, which opens up the ability for devices to run on two additional radio bands (Category 7 capable of 300Mbps download speeds and Category 13 capable of 150Mbps upload), Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0, and adds support for dual cameras in devices.
After Android 7.0 Nougat made its official debut earlier this week, it became official that the beloved Nexus 5 had reached the end of its official support. While the device continues to live on thanks to developers, Google has dropped it after nearly 3 years, not that we should be surprised. With major releases of Android, plenty of older smartphones become officially outdated, even if they can still handle the new platform.
Qualcomm has today announced its latest mobile processor, the Snapdragon 821. This new chip turns the dial up to 11 compared to its older brother, the Snapdragon 820. Qualcomm says that this processor is not a replacement for that chip, but simply a newer, faster iteration…
Xiaomi‘s Mi5 flagship has arrived not too long ago on the market, and has been greeted with generally positive reviews. Its praises come from good build quality matched by mostly high specs, and, in typical Chinese fashion, an affordable price.
However, the firm does not want to trail behind come the last quarter of the year. In order to hack it against the likes of Samsung (with its Note 7) and Apple (and the iPhone) among others, it looks like Xiaomi is prepping to launch a higher-end version of its top phone…
The rumor mill for Samsung‘s next flagship seems to be unstoppable. Be it for its size, specs or configurations, it is undoubted that the Galaxy Note 6 — or Note 7, as we have now come to expect it — is polarizing a lot of interest.
Today, thanks to two of the most famous leakers in the tech space, we may have new information regarding its launch date as well as a detailed look at the device itself…
In the myriad of flagship devices that get announced almost every month, we tend to forget that a big chunk of Android customers comprises people that care little about all the fancy features higher-end devices carry, and mostly need a tool to get a few things done.
That’s the market Sony is targeting with its latest handset. After quickly retracting all mentions of the Xperia E5 from social media briefly after unveiling it last week, the Japanese firm is officially announcing the device today…
Over the past few years, a common trend in the smartphone world saw a myriad of OEMs pushing out a multitude of flagships. As demand for bigger-screened devices arose, so did the request for smaller handsets, often leading to at least two versions of the same device.
Asus is today pushing those boundaries even further, presenting us with not two but three flagship devices, part of the new Zenfone 3 family…
As it often happens with new technologies — especially the ones that aim to replace fundamental, widely used parts of our digital devices — the early implementations are often challenged by a series of missteps and various other problems.
The latest concrete example of this is the promising-yet-troubled USB-C, which led to a few controversies as of late. However, it seems, with its latest G5 flagship, LG may be one of the few manufacturers that got it right (via gtrusted)…
In an announcement which could deal a further blow to Qualcomm’s slowing processor business, Xiaomi is seemingly about to reveal plans to build its own CPUs in-house. In a report published by Korea Times, it’s claimed that the major Chinese smartphone maker will use the industry-standard ARM license technology to make its own ‘Rifle’-branded SoCs.
Earlier this week we brought you news that Google engineer, Benson Leung suggested quite strongly that the LG G5 and HTC 10 (and any other device using Quick-Charge technology and a Type-C connector) was technically not compliant with USB Type-C specification. Because of the way Quick-Charge 2.0 and 3.0 delivers the charge, it restricts some of USB Type-C’s functions by taking up the data lines.
While we’re yet to hear any kind of response from LG or HTC, Qualcomm has (sort of) answered the criticism by half suggesting it’s up to manufacturers to choose how they implement the technology, and that there have been no complaints so far from customers.
The spring hardware refresh seems to be on a roll, and this year, in addition to the usual Samsungs, LGs and HTCs, a slew of Chinese manufacturers are making their way to the market with improved, highly-specced and often premium designed high end handsets.
While not all of them make it to the West, at least initially — like the just unveiled LeEco “superphones” — these devices are certainly worthy of consideration. One of them is the Zuk Z2 Pro, the new flagship of the Lenovo-backed Chinese brand that wrapped up the presentation earlier today…
HTC has been publishing its own revealing teasers for the upcoming flagship smartphone over the past few weeks. The HTC 10 is going to have ‘the best BoomSound yet‘, a ‘compelling camera‘, and a shiny, polished chamfer on the back according to the manufacture’s past tweets. Now Qualcomm has joined in with the pre-launch games…
The Galaxy S7 and its curved-screen sibling are fast phones. Incredibly fast. Despite the demanding QHD panels, 4GB of RAM paired with a snappy processor keep things consistently smooth. However, unlike last year’s entire Galaxy S6 family – which mounted the Samsung-made Exynos 7420 – for 2016 Samsung decided to restore some faith in Qualcomm, whose faulty Snapdragon 810 processor gave certain devices more than one issue last year. In the United States, in fact, both Galaxy S7s use a Snapdragon 820 SoC; a choice which of course needed to lead to some controversy…
Among the numerous changes made by Samsung with last year’s pair of Galaxy S6 flagships, the decision to stick with the Exynos 7420 everywhere the device was shipped stood out particularly. Common practice for the South Korean giant was to manufacture its high-end handsets with Snapdragon chips in the mainstream markets of Europe and the United States, while delivering an Exynos-powered experience in Asia.
Given the Snapdragon 810’s notorious over-heating problems, however, it was probably a good decision; but Qualcomm set to come back in full swing this year, obtaining a deal that sees US-bound Galaxy S7s equipped with their SoC. This, however, seems to have created major discrepancies between the two models’ performances; according to AnTuTu tests, a negligible 5% difference sets the two models apart as far as CPU power goes, while up to a massive 32% gap separates the greatly superior Snapdragon 820 from the seemingly under-performing Exynos 8890 in GPU-related benchmarks…
A couple of days back, it came to light that Samsung had opted not to include Qualcomm’s latest fast-charging technology in the Galaxy S7 or S7 Edge. This decision was made despite the fact that US, China and Japan’s models are equipped with the Snapdragon 820 processor, which we know is capable of supporting Quick-Charge 3.0. Sony, likewise it seems, has opted not to include Quick Charge 3.0 support in any of its new Xperia X phones.
