Qualcomm has let journalists have access to their upcoming Snapdragon 845 SoC (system on chip). They've even allowed it to be benchmarked.
Yes, Qualcomm have allowed journalists loose with their latest flagship phone processor.
Naturally, there were some control over this. Firstly, the Snapdragon 845 was shoved in their own reference smartphone. However, even with that the results look promising for those phones on the horizon, such as the Galaxy S9.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845
As you would expect, Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon 845 will work 25% faster across the board compared to the Snapdragon 835 found in last year's Galaxy S8.
First off, let's just reiterrate the fact that the 845 is being tested in a non-commercial handset.
Let's just take a look at what this reference device is made up of.
Snapdragon 845 reference phone specs
Image from Tech Advisor
- 5.5-inch LCD screen with 2,560x1,440-pixel resolution
- Dual rear cameras: 12-megapixel and 13-megapixel
- Front-facing camera: 12-megapixel
- 2.8GHz Snapdragon 845 processor
- 6GB RAM
- USB-C
- No headset jack
- Not waterproof (not that this would have any effect on performance)
Benchmark results
The CPU improvements seen by these lucky journos appear to be incremental, despite a switch to new ARM Cortex designs.
However, Qualcomm's new Adreno 630 GPU performed impressively, especially considering the power draw. That Adreno 630 provides 30% better performance and 2.5 times faster display output. All of this is presented with an impressive 30% estimated power reduction.
Qualcomm current generations of SoCs are simply unmatched and the gap is so wide that I do not expect upcoming rival solutions to be able to catch up this year."Now, the Qualcomm 845 will blow any other Android out of the water by a comfy 20%. However, Apple's iPhone X did best it on a few counts.
The iPhone X with its A11 Bionic processor manages to top the Snapdragon 845 by a margin of 15% percent on Geekbench's tests, according to Tech Advisor.
Saying that, the 845 did gain a slight edge over the iPhone X on Antutu's combined tests.
Do you even bench?
This is all very impressive but what does it mean.
Well, in the real world, not a lot.
For instance, I've not seen tests of the new X20 cellular modem. This can handle 1.2 Gbps speeds for those lucky enough to have Gigabit LTE.
Additionally, it has 802.11ad WiFi, quick charging and a fingerprint sensor. For actual users, not benchmarkers, the way the device actually handles these features will be key to a smartphone's performance.
Looking forward
The great thing is that we'll soon know how the Qualcomm 845 really handles the world.
Samsung is scheduled to unveil its Galaxy S9 flagship on February 25th. Furthmore, LG, Moto, Nokia, LG and Google should arrive soon after as Mobile World Congress kicks off right afterwards.
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://gadgetynews.com/qualcomm-snapdragon-845-impressive-benchmark-results/