Snapdragon 845 listed in Qualcomm's ITC complaint against Apple

As already reported back in May, Qualcomm is in a legal dispute with Apple and wants to block imports of the iPhone to the US market. The company has filed a complaint against Apple with the International Trade Commission (ITC), which lists a number of patented chipsets. Among these is also the unannounced Snapdragon 845 chipset, which is expected to make its debut sometime next year.

For now, we don’t know much about Qualcomm’s upcoming flagship SoC. Initial rumors claimed that it will be based on the 7-nanometer technology, providing an anticipated 30 percent more power than the Snapdragon 835. However, new rumors now claim that this technology actually won’t be ready for mass production in 2018.

What is likely is that the chipset will be used in a number of flagship devices next year such as the Samsung Galaxy S9. Samsung’s smartphone just might be the first one released with the Snapdragon 845, just as the Galaxy S8 series was the first to sport the Snapdragon 835.

Rumors also suggest that the chipset will power the LG G7, which is also anticipated to be announced in 2018. If you recall, the company’s current flagship — the G6 — actually comes with the slightly older Snapdragon 821, as the device was released before the Snapdragon 835 was first available.

If the Galaxy S9 will indeed be the first Snapdragon 845-powered smartphone to hit the market, this means that LG G7 might be released later than its predecessor. This year, the G6 went on sale earlier than the Galaxy S8, which was LG’s strategy for boosting sales of the smartphone in the first month or so.