(Update: leaked specs) Snapdragon 820 rumored to be unveiled on August 11th

Update: Respected Chinese analyst Jiutang Pan published what appears to be a detailed presentation of the Snapdragon 820 processor (MSM 8996), including specs and features (via G4Games). The Snapdragon 820 will be a 14-nm 64-bit chip featuring Hydra CPU cores (35% improvement over previous generation) and an Adreno 530 GPU (40% performance improvement, 30% power consumption improvement). Qualcomm also promises “significant power/thermal improvements over 20nm,” which is a welcome development following all the reports of phones overheating and requiring throttling.

Original post: Qualcomm’s high-end processors have become synonymous with quality. There’s no doubt they are the most desired chips in the industry, and the 800 series chips are no joke, but this year’s Snapdragon 810 SoC hit the market with a bit of disappointment. It was said to be plagued by over-heating issues, and even though these problems have been resolved, a burn doesn’t heal quickly.

The San Diego-based chip maker has some brownie points to recover, and they plan to do so with the launch of the upcoming Snapdragon 820 processor. But when will we see it launching? If the latest reports are true, Qualcomm is getting ready to announce the Snapdragon 820 processor next week, on August 11th!

Qualcomm has already given us some hints at what its upcoming flagship mobile processor will feature, so we are not left completely in the dark. We know it will be manufactured on a FinFET process (likely Samsung’s 14 nm technology). It’s also noted the chipset will be powered by Qualcomm’s own ARMv8-A CPU core, named Kryo, rather than ARM’s reference Cortex-A57 and A53 cores found in the Snapdragon 810.

Furthermore, the latest report even states the SoC will support ultrasonic waves to generate a 3D map of fingerprints, making bio-metrics much more secure when compared to current 2D finger imaging. And the cherry on top is likely Qualcomm’s Zeroth machine, which emulates human learning to make our devices even smarter.

The latest rumors suggest the first Snapdragon 820 samples have been finished, with HTCand Sony being the first to test them. We have also heard Qualcomm plans to go back to a quad-core architecture, which honestly wouldn’t be a horrible thing. 4-core processors have proven they can dominate processes like no other, and we are sure Qualcomm can deliver once again.

Remember, the rumored HUAWEI Nexus phone is said to be among the first to sport a Snapdragon 820 chipset. We best see something good next week! For now, all we can do is continue to wait until August 11th and see what happens. We will be keeping our eyes open for any additional details, too, so stay tuned to the Android Authority home page!

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