Links on Android Authority may earn us a commission. Learn more.
Qualcomm officially unveils the Snapdragon 820
Despite what many folks would say, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 – the processor that’s powering most high-end smartphones in today’s market – is a perfectly capable CPU that does wonders in terms of performance. Now the company’s latest flagship chipset has just been revealed, boasting X12 LTE support, an upgraded Adreno 530 GPU and much, much more.
For starters, the new Snapdragon 820 processor supports LTE Cat. 12 download speeds of up to 600 Mbps as well as LTE Cat. 13 uplink speeds of up to 150 Mbps. It also comes with support for X12 LTE, which is said to provide 33% faster peak download speeds and triple the peak upload speeds of the company’s 810 processor with X10 LTE.
It's the first commercial mobile processor to take advantage of LTE-U
Take a look at the table below to see just how the new 820 compares to Qualcomm’s other flagships, the 810 and the 808:
| Snapdragon 808 | Snapdragon 810 | Snapdragon 820 | |
|---|---|---|---|
CPU | Snapdragon 808 Up to 2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A57, quad-core Cortex A53 CPU 64-bit | Snapdragon 810 Up to 2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex A57, quad-core A53 CPU 64-bit | Snapdragon 820 Up to 2.2 GHz quad-core Qualcomm Kryo CPU 64-bit |
GPU | Snapdragon 808 Adreno 418 | Snapdragon 810 Adreno 430 | Snapdragon 820 Adreno 530 |
Modem | Snapdragon 808 X10 LTE - LTE Advanced 3x20MHz Carrier Aggregation in the downlink - Cat 9 speeds up to 450 Mbps down/50 Mbps up - Global Mode RF360 support | Snapdragon 810 X10 LTE - LTE Advanced 3x20MHz Carrier Aggregation in the downlink - Cat 9 speeds up to 450 Mbps down/50 Mbps up - Global Mode RF360 support | Snapdragon 820 X12 LTE - LTE Advanced 3x20MHz Carrier Aggregation in the downlink, 2x20 MHZ in the uplink - Cat 12/13 speeds up to 600 Mbps down/150 Mbps up - Global Mode RF360 support |
Video/audio | Snapdragon 808 1080p and 4K Ultra HD capture, playback, and display 4K playback with H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) 4K capture with H.264 (AVC) | Snapdragon 810 1080p and 4K Ultra HD capture, playback, and display 4K capture and playback with H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) | Snapdragon 820 1080p and 4K Ultra HD capture, playback, and display 4K capture and playback with H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) |
Camera | Snapdragon 808 Up to 21MP | Snapdragon 810 Up to 55MP | Snapdragon 820 Up to 28MP 2x Spectra Camera ISP |
Display | Snapdragon 808 2K native and 4K external displays Ultra HD on-device display concurrent with Ultra HD output to HDTV | Snapdragon 810 4K native and 4K external displays Ultra HD on-device display concurrent with Ultra HD output to HDTV | Snapdragon 820 4K native and 4K external displays Ultra HD on-device display concurrent with Ultra HD output to HDTV |
Additionally, the Snapdragon 820 features the Qualcomm Adreno 530 GPU that should be able to deliver up to 40% improved graphics performance compared to the Adreno 430 GPU, as well as the custom-designed 64-bit quad-core Kryo CPU which uses Qualcomm’s Symphony System Manager to help with power management across the entire processor.
Also, as previously announced, this chipset comes with support for Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 3.0, which is approximately 4x faster than conventional charging methods, and 38% more efficient than Quick Charge 2.0.
There are many new features that come with this chipset that we didn’t list here, so be sure to head to the source link below for all of the specifications. Even though the company has made the 820 official, we’re still a little ways out from seeing the processor make its way into new smartphones.