Items tagged with Qualcomm
As much as we are interested in flagship hardware, there is an enormous market for mid-range and entry-level hardware, where affordability and practicality converge. To ensure those markets are being served, Qualcomm today expanded its Snapdragon family with four new mobile platforms—Snapdragon 778G Plus 5G, 695, 480 Plus 5G, and 680 4G—to deliver more performance and capabilities across its entire family of Snapdragon SoCs. None of these are intended to challenge the Snapdragon 888 Plus, Qualcomm's top mobile chip with copious AI processing muscle (as demonstrated in the latest round of MLPerf testing). But they each play an important role in Qualcomm's Snapdragon hierarchy, in part...
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There's quite a bit of moving and shaking in the chip industry right now—Apple just unveiled its M1 Max and M1 Pro chips, Google provided more details on its upcoming Tensor SoC, and of course Intel's Alder Lake launch looms right around the corner. But as it applies to the mobile space, Qualcomm has a message for the competition—Snapdragon is still a formidable architecture. To highlight the point, Qualcomm today is pointing to an updated set of MLPer results. "There’s only one way to say it: the Snapdragon 888+ 5G Mobile Platform blew away the competition in the latest MLPerf Mobile Inference v1.1 benchmark submissions," Qualcomm begins its blog post on the results. "In one...
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Forces are at play to vastly reduce latency while gaming over Wi-Fi, and quite frankly, that is something that is long overdue. The secret sauce to make this possible is comprised of two main ingredients—Qualcomm's FastConnect hardware and the Wi-Fi Dual Station technology that is baked into Windows 11, developed in partnership with Microsoft. When mixed together, gaming over Wi-Fi can be akin to playing over an Ethernet connection. A wired-like gaming experience over a wireless connection may sound like a pipe dream, but this is something that has the backing of some major players, including Qualcomm, Microsoft, and Valve. What this essentially entails is harnessing multiple Wi-Fi bands...
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In case you haven't heard, China is trying to puzzle out its pollution problem, and one way it's doing that is by rationing power. The Chinese government has started selectively requiring energy producers to cool off in an effort to reduce emissions, although those organizations are also dealing with rising coal and natural gas prices, too—all amid ever-increasing energy demands. Unsurprisingly, this has had an effect on the semiconductor industry. Reports from Reuters, AP, and Nikkei Asia all indicate that factories in no less than five provinces have had to shut down due to exceeding local energy use quotas. These quotas were put in place by the Chinese government to stifle smog and preserve...
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Though we are still quite some time from the launch of any new flagship Galaxy smartphone, some leaks have sprung from the Samsung well. Earlier this week, we heard about the new Galaxy S22 Ultra and how it may take over the role of the Galaxy Note line. Now, we have some renders of this alleged new device, and it looks rather interesting. Akin to some previous Galaxy devices, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is slated to have plenty of storage and the latest Qualcomm processor, potentially the Snapdragon 898, which has been the subject of many rumors. Further, the Galaxy S22 Ultra is expected to feature a 6.8-inch curved AMOLED display, likely with a 120Hz refresh rate. With a screen that size, the...
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The next major stop on Qualcomm’s SoC train is likely to be the flagship Snapdragon 898, which is the rumored successor to the highly popular Snapdragon 888/888+. However, that’s not all that the chip firm has in its bag of tricks. According to a new report, Qualcomm is also working on fresh mid-range chips that could land in affordable phones in 2022. WinFuture claims that Qualcomm is working on the SM6375 and the SM6225. The SM6375 reportedly is an octa-core SoC with four “Gold” performance cores and four “Silver” efficiency cores. In addition, as with most new Qualcomm SoCs introduced during the past year and a half, SM6375 will have an integrated 5G modem....
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Audiophiles are a discerning bunch. PC enthusiasts often have a reputation for being extremely particular about what tech makes it into their rigs, but audiophiles can often take that same type of particularity and crank it up to 11. Disagree? Then explain this $60,000 10-foot of speaker wire. Extreme audiophiles actually buy that kind of stuff because sound quality is of the utmost importance to them, regardless of cost. Mainstream consumers may not be quite as particular, of course, but sound quality is still an important consideration for many folks, especially as it relates to Bluetooth devices, like earbuds or headphones. For those people, Qualcomm’s new aptX Lossless Audio technology...
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Apple's iPhone 13 is expected to slightly refresh the exterior and add significant changes under the hood compared to the current-generation iPhone 12 family. In addition to an expected A15 Bionic SoC, doubled internal storage across the board, and a faster 5G modem, highly reputable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo alleges that the family will bring a significant boost in connectivity. We've all come across situations where we've hit low-signal areas that disrupt 4G/5G connectivity on our smartphones. When this happens, making phone calls, sending texts, and surfing the internet either become frustrating slow/unstable, or doesn't work at all. However, Kuo says that the iPhone 13 family will feature...
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Earlier this year, ASUS launched the ROG Phone 5 family, making it among the first to adopt Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 888 SoC. As has been the case with the company's previous-generation gains phones, ASUS went over the top with specs, as the flagship ROG Phone 5 Ultimate brought 18GB of RAM and 512GB of internal storage to the table. Given that Qualcomm recently launched its follow-up Snapdragon 888+ SoC, ASUS is back with a refreshed ROG Phone 5s family. The Snapdragon 888+ offers minor improvements over its predecessor, including a slightly faster Prime core (2.995GHz versus 2.84GHz) along with a tweaked Hexagon 780 AI engine (32 TOPS versus 26 TOPS). The "Ultimate" SKU has been shelved...
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Although a number of leaks hinted at is existence, it wasn’t until early last month that ASUS and Qualcomm made the Smartphone For Snapdragon Insiders official. According to Qualcomm’s website, its Snapdragon Insiders program is already 1.5M+ members strong. The program, which is meant to directly engage with Snapdragon enthusiasts, consists of regular email newsletters and exclusive invitations to contests, influencer events and AMAs with product experts. The Smartphone For Snapdragon insiders is a device developed with these users in mind. Built by ASUS in collaboration with Qualcomm, the Smartphone For Snapdragon Insiders exploits the many inherent benefits of Qualcomm’s...
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It's barely been a month since Qualcomm came out with its Snapdragon 888+ system-on-chip (SoC), essentially a goosed version of the regular Snapdragon 888 that was introduced last December. The Snapdragon 888+ is not a next-gen chipset, though. That distinction belongs to the rumored Snapdragon 898 (or 895), which could deliver a sizable bump in performance. Nothing has been announced, so as with any leak or rumor, a dash of salt goes well when ingesting the unconfirmed information. That applies even to the SoC's name—Qualcomm's next Snapdragon part might be labeled 898 or 895, or even something else. Regardless of what it ends up being called, some supposed details about Qualcomm's next...
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While there have been leaks about Samsung’s new devices like the Galaxy Z Flip 3 and Z Fold 3, the company has been cooking up other stuff in the background. Now, the Fan Edition lineup is growing with today’s announcement of the Galaxy Tab S7 FE, a massive 12.4” tablet for both work and play. The Galaxy Tab S7 FE looks to be a rather nice Android 11 device, powered by either a Qualcomm SM7325 (Wi-Fi version) or Snapdragon 750G (5G version). The tablet features 4GB of RAM, up to 64GB internal storage with microSD expansion capability up to 1TB, and a 10,090mAh fast-charging battery for all-day use. Furthermore, that massive display that we mentioned is a 12.4” 2560x1600...
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Qualcomm is now officially inviting you to "level up your smartphone game" with its special edition Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders, a technical showpiece that was "dreamed up just for you." Designed in collaboration with and sold by ASUS, the high-end handset is now available to preorder, and will ship out to customers on August 27, 2021. In case you missed our previous coverage, the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders is not a cheap handset. Preorder pricing is set at $1,499, putting this squarely in the upper echelon of smartphones, in terms of cost. For those who are willing to splurge, what you get in return is a full-loaded handset built around Qualcomm's Snadragon 888 system-on-chip...
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Intel has already lined up some pretty big customers for its cutting edge 20A process technology, which will introduce new transistor architecture and interconnect technologies when it arrives in the first half of 2024. One of those customers is Qualcomm—it plans to leverage Intel's 20A technology for future Snapdragon system-on-chip (SoC) designs. In case you missed it, Intel outlined a number of new and interesting details about the company's IDM 2.0 strategy, during yesterday's Intel Accelerated webcast. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and Dr. Ann Kelleher, SVP and general manager of technology development, laid it all out on the line, talking about Intel's new node naming scheme and future...
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It is finally here, the first Snapdragon-branded smartphone, designed by ASUS with premium features from head to toe. Called the Smartphone for Snapdragon Insiders, the handset falls decidedly into flagship territory, with a price to match (more on that in a moment). Interestingly, however, it rocks Qualcomm's regular Snapdragon 888 system-on-chip (SoC), rather than the recently announced Snapdragon 888+. In all reality, the upgraded Snapdragon 888+ is not all that drastically faster than the base model—it increases the clock speed from 2.84GHz to 2.99GHz, for a little over a 5 percent boost in raw speed. Qualcomm also goosed its 6th generation AI engine (Hexagon 780) from 26 TOPS to 32...
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Windows 11 is finally out in the wild, and though there are some early caveats, it appears to be a nice update to the Windows ecosystem. However, now that Microsoft has made it publicly available, it also means people get to tinker with it to the extreme. Some developers have done just that as well, with reports of Windows 11 now running on Android phones with just a little software help. Xilin Wu is a developer behind the GitHub project “Renegade,” where “people try to port edk2 to different phones.” EDK2 is an open-source UEFI implementation that would allow ARM-based operating systems to be loaded on phones once ported. In this case, the goal was to get Windows 11 working...
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Late last year, newly formed NUVIA Inc. aimed to take on Intel and AMD in the data center with a massive $240 million funding round. Now, the company recently acquired by Qualcomm, is retargeting its sights on the mobile space and could take a shot at Apple in hopes of gaining better penetration in the laptop market as soon as next year. As it stands, Apple’s M1 chip is an incredibly power-efficient and performant mobile processor architecture that is tough to beat. However, on Thursday, Qualcomm Inc’s newly appointed CEO, Cristiano Amon spoke with Reuters explaining that, with the acquisition of Nuvia and the expertise acquired therein, Qualcomm could end up with the...
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We all knew it was coming, and Qualcomm today announced the more powerful version of its Snapdragon 888, aptly named the Snapdragon 888+. Like the Snapdragon 865+ and Snapdragon 855+ that came before it, the Snapdragon 888+ has the same basic blueprint as its namesake, with higher clocks for increased performance. This time around, the prime Kryo CPU core is clocked at up to 3GHz (2.995GHz to be exact), compared to 2.84GHz (just over a 5 percent boost). This should be enough to eke slightly better overall performance than the standard-issue Snapdragon 888. The other performance increase comes from Qualcomm's 6th generation AI Engine (Hexagon 780), which gets a 20 percent performance boost from...
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It appears that at least one executive over at Lenovo has some rather loose lips when it comes to unannounced products. Chen Jin, who serves as Lenovo's General Manager for the mobile phone unit, claimed in a Weibo post that the company's next-generation flagship mobile smartphone will launch in late 2021. While that news might not seem all that interesting on the surface, we must mention that the flagship will use Qualcomm's latest flagship SoC, which has not yet been announced. As a result, the smartphone could use one of two SoCs, with one being more likely than the other. The first [and most likely] possibility is a refresh of the existing Snapdragon 888 that launched earlier this year. Flagship...
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NVIDIA announced its intention to purchase Arm last year for a record $40 billion. With Arm under its helm, the company would play a pivotal role in shaping the future of the chip architecture that powers billions of devices (and growing) around the globe. Given the many players that leverage Arm chip designs – including heavy hitters like Qualcomm, Apple, Samsung, MediaTek, and countless others – the deal has faced heavy regulatory scrutiny. With this in mind, incoming Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon is offering an alternative to an NVIDIA-only agreement. Incoming Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon Amon suggested to The Telegraph that Qualcomm could join a consortium of key industry players...
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In due time, Qualcomm is expected to release a Snapdragon 888 Plus system-on-chip, just as there were Plus versions of the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 855 SoCs. What comes after that, however, is shaping up to be a pretty big upgrade according to the latest leak, which claims Qualcomm's next premium SoC will be built on a 4-nanometer manufacturing process. That makes sense, given that the Snapdragon 888 is built on a 5nm node. Let's quickly recap that part before moving onto the latest rumor. Qualcomm's existing flagship mobile chip features around 10 billion transistors, an eight-core CPU (four Kryo 680 Silver cores clocked at up to 1.8GHz, three Kryo 680 Gold cores clocked at up to 2.42GHz,...
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In late April, we first learned that Samsung would launch a new Arm-powered Windows 10 laptop series aimed at budget shoppers. Interestingly, the details provided in the leaked report pretty much nailed the specifications of the Galaxy Book Go, which was officially announced by Samsung this morning. As previously reported, the Galaxy Book Go is a thin and light laptop with a 14-inch Full HD IPS display. Powering the device is Qualcomm's newly announced Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 SoC. Of course, the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 features an integrated modem, but 4G LTE won't come standard on the Galaxy Book Go for obvious cost-saving reasons. So instead, it will be an optional upgrade for those that need to access...
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