Snapdragon 821: 2.4GHz Kryo, Qualcomm's Fastest Chipset

 

Qualcomm today announced the successor of it's highly successful Snapdragon 820, the Snapdragon 821 or MSM8996 Pro.

Changelog

The changelog from the Snapdragon 820 variant includes faster speed, improved power savings, and greater application performance.

Powered by Qualcomm Kryo 2.4GHz quad-core CPU, the Snapdragon 821 is supposed to deliver a 10% performance increase over the 820 which packed in a set of four cores, Both 820 and 821 are using two cluster setup which includes 2 Kryo cores and 2 Lower Clock. However, here 820 has been left behind as 821 will now have those lower clocks working at 1.8 or 2.0GHz which used to be 1.6GHz in 820, the higher dual cores clocked at 2.15GHz. In addition to mobile phones, the Snapdragon 821 is also aimed at tablets, drones, robots and virtual reality headsets.

When can we experience it?

821 is highly supposed to make it's debut with the Galaxy Note 7. We also expect some of the variants of the Galaxy S8, Samsung's 2017 flagship, to be powered by the 821, as was the case with the Galaxy S7. We had earlier done a roundup of  specifications of  both the Note 7 and S8.

As far as the Nexus devices code named 'Sailfish' & 'Marlin' are concerned, we do not expect them to run the 821 variant. We have strongly tipped 'Sailfish' to be at the higher end of specifications out of both the Nexus variants. Rajat Kapoor, our editor, had earlier mentioned that 'Sailfish' will most likely boast a 2Ghz Quad Core 64-Bit Processor.

The Untold & Our Expectations

Qualcomm didn't confirm the entire set of specifications to us. We strongly believe that the 821 will also have the X16 LTE Chip and LPDDR5 support. If the 821 will have the X16 LTE Chip, it will be the world's first processor to deliver download speeds of 1 Gbps or 1000 Mbps. Add on to that, upload speeds of 150 Mbps and Snapdragon Upload+'s uplink data compression is bound to improve our internet experience to a great extent.

Qualcomm also haven't confirmed about the GPU which Snapdragon 821 will pack in.

To carry on with 820's legacy, the Snapdragon 821 will definitely feature QuickCharge 3.0. We had earlier done an in-depth analysis of the quick charging technology here.

Questions such as how well the performance performs, does it heat much, can only be answered after we get our hands on a device starring the 821 or after looking at the benchmark scores.

Krittin Kalra

Krittin Kalra is a 20 year old Android freak. Striving for passions, chasing down his dreams and living a life without regrets is his sole mantra. A bit moody, he also does custom ROM reviews for AndroGuider. Currently pursuing his B.Tech, he aspires to follow his heart.