Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 SoC with 64-bit Kryo CPU, Adreno 530 GPU gets official

Qualcomm has made its latest generation mobile CPU, the Snapdragon 820 official. The chip is expected to power most of next year's flagship smartphone and tablets. It promises faster speeds and a more power-efficient design along with some new features.

The Snapdragon 820 clocks in at 2.2GHz and packs Qualcomm’s new Kyro CPU, which the company says will offer twice as much power and efficiency as last year’s Snapdragon 810 thanks to the new 14nm FinFET process. It features the Qualcomm Adreno 530 GPU which offers 40% graphics performance, compute capabilities, and power usage compared to Adreno 430.

It is equipped with new modems, enabling X12 LTE with Cat 12 downlink speeds of up to 600 mbps and support of 3 x 20MHz Carrier Aggregation and Cat 13 uplink speed of up to 150 Mbps via support for 64-QAM, or Quadrature Amplitude Modulation. It supports camera configurations and sensors up to 28MP, 4K Ultra HD capture and playback, 14-bit image sensors, hybrid autofocus, as well as 4K display support. There is also support for Quick Charge 3.0, USB 3.0 and Snapdragon Sense ID, a new security feature that takes an ultrasonic reading of your fingerprint to unlock the device.

Regarding the design of the new Snapdragon 820 system-on-chip (SoC), Qualcomm said,

"The Snapdragon 820 system-on-chip (SoC) represents a rare event in the engineering and design of semiconductors. Every major IP block in the system is a newly optimized custom design. The opportunity to take a fresh look at a processor to this magnitude is infrequent, as each IP block typically has its own update schedule."

"But in the case of the Snapdragon 820, every major component of the system has been significantly improved in terms of performance and power consumption to help deliver the kinds of always-on, performance-demanding experiences that users want."

Highlights of Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 (MSM8996)

• Up to 2.2 GHz quad-core custom 64-bit Qualcomm Kryo CPUs
• Integrated X12 LTE, with Global Mode, 3x faster peak upload speeds and 33% faster peak download speeds compared to X10 LTE
• Cat 12/13 speeds of up to 600 Mbps down/150 Mbps up via 3x20MHz downlink, 2X20MHz uplink
• LTE/Wi-FI link aggregation, LTE-U, LTE Broadcast, LTE Dual SIM, Dual Active (DSDA), HD Voice over 3G and VoLTE,Wi-Fi calling with LTE call continuity
• Qualcomm Adreno 530 GPU, Up to OpenGL ES 3.1+
• Supports up to 4K Ultra HD on-device, 4K Ultra HD output, 1080p and 4K external display support
• 4K HEVC video at 60FPS with 10-bit color
• WCD9335 audio codec, Hi-Fi 24bit/192kHz FLAC playback
• Up to 28 MP, Qualcomm Spectra Image Sensor Processor (14-bit dual-ISP)
• Qualcomm Hexagon 680 DSP with Hexagon Vector eXtensions and Low Power Island for sensor processing
• UFS 2.0, eMMC 5.1, SD 3.0 (UHS-I), LPDDR4 1866MHz dual-channel memory
• QCA9500 802.11ad 60GHz WiFi 1st WTR3950 LTE-U support, 2×2 MU-MIMO, Tri-band Wi-Fi, Qualcomm IZat Gen8C, USB 3.0/2.0, NFC
• Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0

Quick comparison of the 820 to the 810 and 808.

Kaiser Bey

Kaiser is a tech enthusiast who likes to write, read and talk about tech. He dreams of going to Mars and never come back. We hope that you find his posts on AndroGuider helpful and informative