Qualcomm has finally announced the rumoured Snapdragon 821 with a debut device kept secret, but we can expect it later this year.
The Snapdragon 820 rectified Qualcomm’s reputation as a leading chip manufacturer, after so many people were burned by the Snapdragon 810. We meant that colloquially and should probably make it clear no one suffered second degree burns from their Qualcomm powered smartphone (that we know of), but they did get pretty hot. The thermal controversy coupled with performance issues is now firmly in the past as Qualcomm move onto the Snapdragon 821.
We found the 820 to be a stellar chip in every device we reviewed that had it. It was found in virtually every flagship device of major manufacturers, as seen in the list below:
The 821 promises to be faster, 10% faster to be exact. It’s virtually the Snapdragon 820 but with a bump in clock speed. From 2.1GHz seen on the 820, to 2.4GHz for the 821. Snapdragon 820 features will of course be present, so you can enjoy feature such as: X12 LTE modem, Upload+ and Ultra HD voice. Staple features such as improves battery life, app performance and greater speeds are of course present too.
It’s tradition for Qualcomm to introduce a new and more powerful chip every few months. But this year Qualcomm has even more reason to do so as Google Daydream is also expected this year. Qualcomm are keeping tight lipped over which future devices will use the new chipset. Most likely we will see it in a device with virtual reality in mind.
Google are rumoured to be releasing their own Nexus device this year and could potentially give the Snapdragon 821 a debut. Other rumours point to an upgraded Nexus 6P (with Daydream in mind), after comments made by a Huawei executive.
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