Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 found to run cooler than the 801

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BY Unknown 16:04 0

Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 found to run cooler than the 801

There have been questions raised recently about the TDP of the upcoming Snapdragon 810 chipset, which was apparently high enough to cause Samsung to allegedly drop it out of its upcoming Galaxy S6 smartphone. On the other hand, LG dismissed it as a non-issue.

To put the confusion to rest, STJS Gadgets Portal ran some tests on both the new Snapdragon 810 and the Snapdragon 801 to see how the new chipset compares to what we are already familiar with by now.

The tests compared the skin temperatures, that is the temperature of the surface of the device (which is what matters since that's the part you will be touching) in a 25 degree Celsius room temperature environment. Two tests were ran on the devices, one with Asphalt 8 being played to check gaming performance, and the other where 4K video was recorded on the devices.

In the first test, the device running Snapdragon 810 managed to reach around 40°C while the Snapdragon 801 device was at 45°C. In the second test, the Snapdragon 810 device was once again cooler, hitting 35°C while the Snapdragon 801 device reached around 43°C.

This test does show that the new generation Qualcomm chip is indeed cooler than the 801 in these specific tests on these particular devices in these ambient temperature situations. Of course, when you take into account other use cases, variations in device designs and variations in ambient temperatures, things could change considerably, so it's best to take these results with a pinch of salt.

Asus to release Qualcomm and Mediatek-powered Zenfone 2

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BY Unknown 01:00 0

Asus to release Qualcomm and Mediatek-powered Zenfone 2

The Asus Zenfone 2 was one of the major announcements at CES in the beginning of January, offering powerful hardware in a budget-conscious package. Aiming to diversify its component suppliers list, the Taiwanese company is set to release more versions of the smartphone, replacing the Intel chipset with Qualcomm and Mediatek offerings.

The original Zenfone 2 is equipped with either an Intel Atom Z3580 or Z3560 and 4GB or 2GB of RAM. The Qualcomm variant will sit in a lower-priced market segment, and will become available in Q2. The Mediatek-powered option will be targeted at markets like India where LTE capability can be omitted. Adding to the company's already less-than-obvious naming scheme, the new models may further complicate selection.

The specsheet of the smartphone is otherwise headlined by a 5.5-inch IPS display of 1080p resolution for a 403ppi density. A number of storage option will be available ranging from 16GB to 64GB. A 13MP/5MP camera combo is responsible for picture taking and the whole thing is powered by a 3,000mAh battery.

A detailed availability roadmap has also been revealed. The Zenfone 2 will first arrive in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, China, and surprisingly France, in March. Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Italy and the US will follow suit in April, while Japanese folks may get it in May. Brazilians will need to be even more patient and wait until June.

Qualcomm could possibly be fined $1 billion in China in antitrust case

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BY Unknown 01:51 0

Qualcomm could possibly be fined $1 billion in China in antitrust case

A 14-month investigation into Qualcomm's business practices in China is reportedly nearing completion. That said, its conclusions will clearly not be loved by the well known chip maker.

Apparently the company may be forced to pay a $1 billion fine by the Chinese authorities, for engaging in anticompetitive practices over there. This would be the biggest amount ever paid by any company in China.

Last week, during talks between Qualcomm representatives and those of China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) "significant progress" has allegedly been made towards ending the investigation.

Aside from the record fine, Qualcomm could also be forced to lower its royalty rates by around a third for patents used in China. Additionally, the company would also agree to make changes to its licensing practices, yet not in a very damaging way for its bottom line.

The NDRC is soon expected to announce the antitrust settlement with Qualcomm. The record fine won't influence the company's financials that much, since around half of its $26.5 billion global revenue was earned in China for its latest fiscal year.

However, a big part of Qualcomm's profit in China came from its patent licensing arm collecting royalties. This business was disrupted by the NDRC's investigation, which created disputes between the chip maker and its licensees, and caused other companies to delay signing new licensing agreements

Snapdragon 810 Windows Phone devices coming in 2015

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BY Unknown 01:59 0

Snapdragon 810 Windows Phone devices coming in 2015

Whether or not Qualcomm is having troubles with the Snapdragon 810 chip, there is no denying it is one of the powerhouses of the season and people are looking forward to devices utilizing it. LG kicked off first with the S810-running LG Flex, but we expect many more flagships with the same hardware to premiere on the MWC in a few weeks.

Meanwhile Microsoft and Qualcomm will continuing their partnership and they confirmed we can expect Windows Phone devices to run on Snapdragon 810 later this year. The Snapdragon 810 chip offers an octa-core 64-bit processor (4x Cortex-A57 and 4x Cortex-A53), console-like graphics and full 4K support thanks to Adreno 430 GPU, plus LTE Cat.9 support for up to 450 Mbps downlink.

Here is the official quote from Qualcomm's press release:

"Microsoft and Qualcomm’s long standing collaboration has allowed the two companies to offer compelling business, imaging, and entertainment experiences with Lumia smartphones running on Windows Phone," said Juha Kokkonen, general manager for portfolio and product management at Microsoft. "We look forward to continuing this relationship to deliver best in class Lumia smartphones, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processors, and offer an unprecedented combination of processing power, rich multimedia, high-performance graphics and wireless connectivity for our customers."

Microsoft has announced a unified Windows 10 platform across all of its devices and deep Xbox One integration, including game streaming to other devices (such as Sony's Remote Play). The latter would definitely require powerful hardware and stable internet connection, so the Snapdragon 810 look like a logical choice choice.

Anyway, the MWC 2015 is upon us and we should be seeing a plethora of top-notch gadgets premiering there. Hopefully Microsoft shows us something interesting as well.

Qualcomm confirms Snapdragon 810 snub by a “large customer”

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BY Unknown 21:08 0

Qualcomm confirms Snapdragon 810 snub by a “large customer”

Qualcomm confirmed that the high-end Snapdragon 810 chip will not feature “in the upcoming design cycle of a large customer’s flagship device.” The San Diego-based chipmaker announced its first quarter results for the fiscal 2015.

A series of rumors point at Samsung Galaxy S6 as the most likely device to ditch Snapdragon 810 for another solution. The Korean giant’s next flagship smartphone will likely utilize a beefy Exynos 7420 chipset with 14nm architecture and octa-core CPU.

Qualcomm posted a stellar net income of $2.1 billion from $7.1 billion of revenue for the quarter it reported. However, due to the Snapdragon 810 snub and increased competition from China, the company lowered its earnings expectations for the second half of the fiscal 2015.

Overall. Qualcomm somewhat confirmed the floating rumors about Snapdragon 810 not being up to snuff. Losing a “large customer” is certainly not something the company is used to - its silicon featured in just about every high-end smartphone over the past couple of years.

LG denies rumors, will not sue Qualcomm

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BY Unknown 02:31 0

LG denies rumors, will not sue Qualcomm

The Snapdragon 810 has become an endless source of controversy in the smartphone world over the past few months. The purported overheating issues of the chipset lead to an exchange of reports stating that Samsung will abandon the problematic piece of silicon, Qualcomm allegedly responding with a modified version of the SoC for Samsung's use.

This dedicated release in turn fueled rumors, claiming that LG may sue Qualcomm over the matter. LG, however, has been quick to dissipate those rumors - the Korean company reached to us with the following statement.

"Rumors regarding LG taking legal action against Qualcomm are unfounded and a complete fabrication of the facts. Given the source of this rumor, we're surprised it's being taken seriously at all."

As unequivocal as it gets, LG's wording should hopefully put an end to the rumor and confirm the excellent relationship between the two companies.

LG has already announced its curved phablet offering, the G Flex2, featuring the said chipset. The company has denied experiencing any issues with the hardware in the smartphone, which is expected to hit its home market any day now.

Qualcomm providing Samsung with a modified version of Snapdragon 810

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BY Unknown 21:00 0

Qualcomm providing Samsung with a modified version of Snapdragon 810

The Snapdragon 810 was set on to be the chipset of choice for the majority of this year's flagships, but persistent rumors of overheating problems have shaken Qualcomm's dominant position. Reports surfaced, stating that Samsung will opt for its in-house Exynos silicon to avoid potential delays in production.

Industry insiders, however, have stated that Qualcomm is developing an updated version

of the SoC for Samsung to use. The new release will be available to the Korean company in March, which poses the question whether the Snapdragon 810 will actually make it in time for the Galaxy S6.

The piece of news comes as a bit of an acknowledgement by Qualcomm of the chipset's issues, which the company has strenuously denied so far.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 is featured in a number of already announced top-tier smartphones, including the LG G Flex2 and the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro. Those manufacturers have similarly denied facing complications with the SoC. It is unclear whether the updated version will be available to those companies too or it will be a Samsung exclusive.

Qualcomm's Adreno 430 benchmarked, Crushes Adreno 330

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BY Unknown 04:43 0

Qualcomm's Adreno 430 benchmarked, Crushes Adreno 330

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 has come under fire with reports that it will be delayed because overheats, though both Qualcomm and LG (which launched the first S810-powered phone) refute those claims. What can we expect from this chip?

After all, it’s based on ARM’s CPU cores not a Qualcomm custom design. Well, the GPU is a custom design and GFX Bench gives us a taste of what it is capable of.

Adreno 430 promises a 30% performance boost over the Adreno 420 that’s currently found in the Snapdragon 805, which was the last hurrah of Krait and also the chipset of choice for late 2014 flagships.

The test was run on a development board, so we’ll just use the off-screen numbers to measure normalized performance.

Manhattan (1080p offscreen)

• Tegra X1 Maxwell (Dev. board)63.4
• Tegra K1 Kepler (Nexus 9)31.1
• Adreno 430 (Dev. board)21.9
• PowerVR GX6450 (iPhone 6 Plus)19.3
• Adreno 420 (Nexus 6)18.6
• Mali-T760 (Galaxy Note 4)16.7
• Adreno 330 (HTC One M8)12.1

T-Rex (1080p offscreen)

• 
  
• Tegra K1 Kepler (Nexus 9)62.5
• Adreno 430 (Dev. board)47.9
• PowerVR GX6450 (iPhone 6 Plus)45.1
• Adreno 420 (Nexus 6)38.3
• Adreno 330 (HTC One M8)28.2
• Mali-T760 (Galaxy Note 4)27.8

Going by these numbers the new Adreno 430 and the Snapdragon 810 chipsets will be in have a slight performance advantage over the PowerVR GX6450 that Apple uses for its iPhone 6 Plus. Nvidia’s Tegra offers unmatched performance but no one has managed to fit it into a smartphone yet (due to power and thermal constraints).

The difference between Adreno 430 and 420 varies by the test as it will between different game engines and goes from a solid 10fps difference to about 3fps. Still, most people with a 2014 flagship got it early and are a generation behind with the Adreno 330 and the improvement there is massive.