Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 Quad-Core SoC with Adreno 530 GPU is now Official

After delayed for several months, the latest Snapdragon 820 SoC had been finally unveiled in a media event held in New York. Qualcomm had first announced about their latest SoC at the IFA 2015 in September this year. While at that time we are only told about the all new 64-bit Kyro CPU that will be powering the chipset along with Adreno 530 GPU and Hexagon 680 DSP. The company also claimed that the Snapdragon 820 (further referred as SD820) can attain a 2X increase in performance and power efficiency compared to Snapdragon 810.

The SD820 will be based on Samsung’s 14nm FinFET process that results in the improved efficiency of the chipset. Out of the four core, two are clocked at 2.2GHz while the other two at 1.6 or 1.7GHz. Compared to the X10 LTE, the X12 LTE modem on this chipset can deliver up to 33X increase in the download speeds and 3X for upload speeds.

It also supports Cat 12 LTE with download speeds up to 600 Mbps and Cat 13 LTE with upload speeds up to 150 Mbps. The Adreno 530 GPU will take care of the graphics on this SoC and is 40% faster than Adreno 430. The 14-bit Qualcomm Spectra dual ISP (Image Signal Processor) supports up to 25MP with zero shutter lag, and we can expect the better captures in low light.

The Security on this new chipset includes several hardware and software features under the Qualcomm Haven Security Suite including Qualcomm SecureMSM hardware and software, Snapdragon StudioAccess Content Protection, Qualcomm SafeSwitch theft prevention solution, Qualcomm Snapdragon Sense ID 3D fingerprint technology, and Qualcomm Snapdragon Smart Protect.

The device with SD820 can support up to 4K Ultra HD on-device and the same 4K Ultra HD resolution as output. The Quick Charge 2.0 from Snapdragon 810 is upgraded to Quick Charge 3.0 which is 4X faster than normal chargers and 38% more efficient compared to Quick Charge 2.0. It can charge the typical device from 0% to 80% in just 35 minutes. New Hexagon 680 DSP includes Hexagon Vector eXtensions and Sensor Core with Low Power Island for always-on sensor processing which increases the productivity along with low power consumption.

If very thing goes according to the plan, the SD820 SoC powered device can be seen in the first half of 2016. There are many rumors about the upcoming flagship devices to sport the latest SoC; the list includes Xiaomi Mi5, ViVo X6, Samsung Galaxy S7 and few others.