Yesterday, Qualcomm announced its flagship processor Snapdragon 845 and now we have a full list of specifications. The successor of Snapdragon 835 comes with performance improvements, improved modem and better battery efficiency. Qualcomm has also focused on VR content, security and better multimedia experience.
The chip is built on Samsung’s 10nm LPP FinFET, that offers 10-percent higher performance or 15-percent lower power consumption as compared to the prevevios generation 10nm node. Snapdragon 845 boasts a new Kryo 385 CPU architecture built on Arm Cortex technology.
Snapdragon 845 is the first chipset to employ ARM’s DynamiQ CPU cluster organization. This tech allows multiple clusters of up to 4 CPUs to be chained together. So, a typical octa-core design can be achieved with a single cluster having Cortex-A75 and A55 CPU cores. It improved performance. The four performance cores clock up to 2.8 GHz and four energy efficient cores clock up to 1.7 GHz. All these eight cores now into the same cluster.
There is also an all-new Adreno 630 Visual Processing Subsystem. It claims to offer improved graphics and video rendering and less power consumption over the Adreno 540. A switch from 5xx family to 6xx family also marks the major architectural changes. It supports displays up to 2K x 2K in resolution at up to 120 Hz. You will surely see notable performance improvements while using Adreno 630 to power mobile VR experiences
The company claims 3 times performance boost in AI processing. So, you will experience improved personal assistant performance. It also added support for TensorFlow Lite and the new Open Neural Network Exchange frameworks. Snapdragon 845 also supports Google’s Android Neural Networks API for use with Android 8.1.
Qualcomm has also added enhanced AI-based visual recognition with the Hexagon 685 digital signal processor. It would handle image processing duties and serve as a hub for all your fingerprint, iris, and face recognition scanners.
Qualcomm has built the latest Spectra image signal processor from the ground to offer improved performance. The new Spectra 280 ISP now supports 480 fps slow motion 720p video and 60 fps video recording at up to 16 megapixels of resolution. It comes with multi-frame noise reduction (MFNR). It also boasts 64 times more high-dynamic range color information. Snapdragon 845 supports 32 megapixels single camera sensor and 16 megapixels dual Hybrid AF.
It also features hardware isolated security subsystem called Secure Processing Unit (SPU). This dedicated chip acts as a vault for any saved biometric information such as Fingerprint, Iris and Face scan data. This can also be used for keeping security keys used for encryption and sensitive data for financial payments.
Qualcomm’s latest X20 LTE modem supports up to 1.2 Gbps download and 150 Mbps uploads. Snapdragon 845 also includes 802.11 AD and Bluetooth 5.0. It also supports aptX and aptX HD Bluetooth codec for audiophiles.
Fast Charging has been upgraded to Quick Charge 4+ that offers cooler charging, 30% better efficiency, and up to 15% faster charge times. Qualcomm also promises one-third power reduction for energy-hungry features like video capture, AR/VR and gaming.
Qualcomm is expected to start shipping Snapdragon 845 for commercial devices in early 2018. Xiaomi has already confirmed to use this in Mi 7. Samsung and LG will also launch their next flagship phones next year in February and March with this new Snapdragon 845.
