Items tagged with (NASDAQ:QCOM)
2019 is the year of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 (and soon, the Snapdragon 855 Plus) with respect to Android smartphones. But the tech industry doesn't stand still, which means that a new SoC is on the way to replace the Snapdragon 855 family. If Qualcomm's naming scheme stays intact, that means that we will see the release of the Snapdragon 865 later this year. Given that we're already over half-way through 2019, it should come as no surprise that we're now beginning to see early benchmarks for the alleged Snapdragon 865. In this case, we're looking at Geekbench figures, which you can see in the screengrab below: The first thing that we notice is that the Snapdragon 865 get a healthy boost in...
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After a week of teasing and a few leaks, ASUS is getting officially official with its ROG Phone II gaming phone. As ASUS confirmed last week, the ROG Phone II is powered by Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 855 Plus, which a binned version of the existing Snapdragon 855 with higher CPU and GPU clocks. The Snapdragon 855 Plus will primarily be used in gaming phones -- like the ROG Phone II -- and features CPU (single "Prime" core) and GPU clocks that have been boosted by 4 percent and 15 percent respectively. So not only will the ROG Phone II have a performance advantage over its predecessor, which featured a Snapdragon 845, but it should also outperform all previously released...
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What appear to be the first real images (read: not renders) of ASUS's upcoming ROG Phone II have found their way to the web, and in the process, reveal a carbon copy physical design compared to the first generation variant. At least as it pertains to the front of the phone, we are hard pressed to spot any changes. More on that in a moment. Here is what we know about the ROG Phone II. It will have a 120Hz display, up from a 90Hz, bringing it in line with competing gaming phones like the Razer Phone (released in 2017) and Razer Phone 2 (released in 2018). ASUS also recently confirmed that the ROG Phone II will rock a newly minted Qualcomm Snapdragon 855+ processor. The plus variant is essentially...
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Hot on the heels of Qualcomm announcing an enhanced version of its mighty Snapdragon 855 system-on-chip (SoC) called the Snapdragon 855+, ASUS has confirmed that it will be implanting the new chip into its upcoming ROG Phone II. This will give the handset some additional grunt for gaming, compared to the regular Snapdragon 855 that is so commonly found in today's flagship phones. In case you missed our previous coverage, the Snapdragon 855+ is basically a bolstered version of the non-plus variant. It is still an octa-core SoC with a main "Prime" core, three high performance cores, and four efficiency cores, and it continues to be built on a 7-nanometer manufacturing process. However, the Prime...
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For flagship Android smartphones that have launched during the first half of 2019, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 has been the go-to option to get the best performance. The Snapdragon 855 is used in everything from the Samsung Galaxy S10 family to the OnePlus 7 Pro to the ASUS ZenFone 6 to the LG G8 ThinQ. However, out of left field, Qualcomm has dropped a bombshell on the tech community with the announcement of the new Snapdragon 855 Plus. The Snapdragon 855 Plus is not a huge departure from its "non-Plus" counterpart, but it does offer a Kryo 485 Prime core with a clock speed of 2.96GHz (up from 2.84GHz). In addition, the Adreno 640 GPU sees its performance improved by roughly...
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Qualcomm first gave us a taste of its new PC-centric Snapdragon 8cx SoC back in late December, and touted its performance chops with benchmarks against an Intel Core i5 (Kaby Lake-R) processor late last month. We’re now getting word that Microsoft may be eying the Snapdragon 8cx design as an option for future Surface devices. This isn’t the first time that we’ve heard about an ARM SoC being destined for a Surface product. The Surface Go was rumored to use an ARM processor until Intel made Microsoft an offer that it couldn’t refuse. According to sources familiar with Microsoft’s plans, the company has been working closely with Qualcomm...
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Right now the chipset that reins sumpreme in the high-end flagship smartphone performance department is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 855 SoC. Despite that chip still being quite new, there are already rumors of a next-gen chip coming that will bring even more performance to the table of course, as well as additional Qualcomm-powered 5G capabilities. We have reported on the existing of the rumored Snapdragon 865 before, but today some new rumors have just turned up. The new rumors come from Roland Quandt over at Winfuture. He claims that Snapdragon 865 is what Qualcomm employees are calling the next-gen SoC (SM8250). Quandt claims that there are two versions of the new SoC with one going by...
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Qualcomm has been talking a big game when it comes to its upcoming octa-core Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform which will power Windows 10 notebooks and convertibles. In fact, Qualcomm thinks that the 7nm SoC has the muscle to go toe-to-toe with x86-64 Core processors from Intel, which is something that we couldn't say for the preceding Snapdragon 835 and Snapdragon 850 platforms for Windows 10 PCs. Today, Qualcomm is backing up that talk with some actual benchmark numbers, and things are looking very promising. Qualcomm has picked the Core i5-8250U (Kaby Lake Refresh) as the primary competition for the Snapdragon 8cx. The Core i5-8250U is a quad-core processor (8 threads) with a...
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It's been a while since we've talked about Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8cx platform for Windows 10 PCs. Like the Snapdragon 835 and Snapdragon 850 that came before it, the 7nm Snapdragon 8cx is a rather peculiar platform in that it is based on ARM architecture rather than an Intel- or AMD-based x86-64 platform. Today, we're witnessing the announcement of the world's very first 5G-enabled PC, and it of course comes packing the Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform. It's Lenovo’s Project Limitless and it takes the form of a 2-in-1 convertible Windows 10 PC. Lenovo Project Limitless Looking at the device, it seems like a pretty standard-fare convertible design that would fit neatly...
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Qualcomm shares soared when it was announced that it had reached a multi-year deal with Apple to settle the pair's long-running global patent licensing fight. Today, Qualcomm shares are heading the opposite direction after a U.S. judge ruled that the company's patent licensing practices are both unlawful and anticompetitive. QCOM is down 11 percent today as of this writing. The ruling was handed down by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, whose name should be familiar to those that have followed lawsuits involving "big tech" over the past decade. Koh ruled that given its position as the leading supplier of 4G LTE modems found in modern smartphones, it has unfairly backed its customers into...
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There are bad days, and then there are bad weeks like the one Huawei is having. Amid pressure from the US government to stop doing business with Huawei over spying concerns, several companies have reportedly stopped supplying the Chinese telecom with hardware, including major semiconductor firms such as Broadcom, Intel, Qualcomm, and Xilinx. This is the latest blow to Huawei and it could have a crushing effect on its business operations. How much bad news Huawei can weather is being put to the test, it seems—over the weekend, Google dealt a major blow to Huawei by effectively yanking its Android license, leaving the company to only use the public version of Android that is available to...
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There's no question that Apple is working on its own in-house modem that will be used in future iPhones and iPads (and potentially MacBooks). The company has been hiring scores of engineers and expanding its presence in San Diego, which just so happens to be where Qualcomm HQ is located. With this in mind, it may still be quite a few years before we see Apple's own homegrown chips ship in production iPhones; that's according to a new report from The Information. Sources within Apple that spoke with the publication alleged that Apple’s 5G modem won't be ready until 2025 at the earliest. Previously, it had been thought that Apple could field its own 5G modem in 2021. If this...
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Considering that many smartphone OEMs have abandoned 3.5mm headphone jacks on their smartphones in a bid to save space and "embrace the future," many consumers have skipped over adopting USB-C headphones and are instead going completely wireless. While those firmly in the Apple camp have gravitated towards AirPods (Siri), Android users have instead opted for devices like the Google Pixel Bids (Google Assistant) and Samsung Galaxy Buds (Bixby). Today, Qualcomm and Google have announced an alliance that will make it easier for manufacturers to develop Google Assistant-equipped wireless headphones for the consumer market. Qualcomm announced that it is adding two Google technologies to...
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The Google I/O 2019 event is kicking off in just a few hours (at the time of this writing), or is already underway, depending on when you are reading this. Among other things, it's expected that Google will formally launch its Pixel 3a and Pixel 3a XL phones. There may not be many surprises, though, as there have been numerous leaks up to this point. The latest one divulges the supposed final spec sheet of the Pixel 3a. Previous rumors pointed to the Pixel 3a being powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 processor. This latest leak seemingly confirms that, along with the presence of 4GB of RAM and a 3,000 mAh battery pack (non-removable, we suspect). Google Pixel 3a specsheet (translated) pic.twitter.com/AGBF3ITw3v...
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