The recently announced Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe upgrades to the Snapdragon 821, after Qualcomm announced their latest processor yesterday.
It’s a very surprising move, not one you see every year. In a move to stay ahead of the curve, Asus gave the Zenfone 3 Deluxe an upgrade to Qualcomm’s latest chipset. This makes the Zenfone 3 Deluxe the first device confirmed to incorporate the Snapdragon 821. Despite Asus announcing their new device two months ago at Computex. Seeing as Asus are only upgrading, Qualcomm seem to be willing to get the contract and Tippex out (correction fluid).
While the Snapdragon 820 is more than a capable chipset, Asus want to stay ahead of the curve and be ready for the virtual reality wave, when Google Daydream rolls out this Autumn. The Snapdragon 821 will be more than capable of running VR, boasting a 10% increase in performance, compared to its predecessor the 820.
Although the increase of power will help with VR, the 5.7-inch AMOLED display is only full HD, which will impact picture quality, compared to the quad HD screens seen on the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Nexus 6P.
It should be noted that only the high-end 256GB variant of the Asus Zenfone 3 Deluxe, will utilise the Snapdragon 821, with the two lower specced variants sticking to the Snapdragon 820. The Zenfone 3 Deluxe has not received confirmation on a UK release.
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