Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 MDP smartphone and tablet give us a glimpse of the future

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 810 Mobile Development Platform smartphone and tablet are now available for purchase, each equipped with some of the best mobile technology currently available. Priced at $799 and $999 respectively, these developer oriented devices aren’t cheap. Fortunately, staring in quiet awe is free of charge.

The Snapdragon 810 developer smartphone is a 6.2-inch behemoth, packing a 2560×1600 (490ppi) display. It also comes with 4GB of LP-DDR4 RAM, a 3020mAh battery, 13MP OIS and dual flash rear camera, 4MP front facing camera capable of 1080p 120fps recording, QuickCharge 2.0 technology, and a fingerprint reader on the back. The handset also features a huge array of sensors, 8 microphones, a micro HDMI slot that supports 4K displays, USB 3.0 support, and an ultrasound emitter. Plenty of toys for developers to play around with.

Qualcomm’s latest reference tablet is an equally lavish affair. It features a 10.1-inch UHD 4K (3840×2160) 16:9 display, 4GB of LP-DDR4 RAM, the same camera setup as the smartphone, and a decent sized 7560mAh battery. The tablet also features a similar range of sensors, but also comes with dual 3D IR gesture cameras and front facing stereo speakers.

The major point of these developer devices is, of course, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 SoC inside. The Snapdragon 810 is a 64-bit octo-core chip that features four ARM Cortex-A57s and four Cortex-A53. The chip offers superior performance and energy efficiency compared to the last generation of ARM CPU designs. The 810 also contains the improved Adreno 430 GPU, which boasts 30 percent more performance than the Snapdragon 805’s Adreno 420, as well as features such as 4K display support.

While Qualcomm’s reference devices contain a good many features that will likely never make their way to consumer flagships, Qualcomm has offered some insight as to what we can expect from next year’s high-end smartphones and tablets. Faster processors are a given, but faster memory types, new USB and Bluetooth standards, and even higher resolution displays could also become the norm in 2015.

If you’re a developer, or simply have some spare cash to spend, the Mobile Development Platform smartphone and tablet can be ordered directly from Qualcomm. Shipments are scheduled for mid-December.