We know that Qualcomm is going to release its Snapdragon 820 chipset sometime later this year. While the company has been revealing more details about the chip every week, Qualcomm China president Mr. Meng revealed that at present there are about 30 different phones that are going to use Snapdragon 820 chipset. So, there will be a lot of smartphones that will hit the markets in the first half of 2016 with this powerful chip.
This year, many companies decided to go with the slightly slower Snapdragon 808 or Mediatek chipset for their flagship devices, to avoid any heating related issues. But before that, Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon range have always been the chip that powered flagships. If the Snapdragon 820 is as good as we have heard till now, there will be a lot of phones in the market with this new SoC soon. Mr. Meng’s comments itself proves this point.
Now, if this is the case, many manufacturers, from China as well as other countries will try to be the first ones to boast of using this chip. And according to Pan Jiutang, the IHS analyst, it will most likely be Xiaomi, atleast in China. The second possible candidate is Smartisan, but he is not sure of that at the moment.
If Xiaomi is indeed going to release the first Snapdragon 820 powered smartphone, it should be for none other than its upcoming flagship Xiaomi Mi5. Its been more than a year since we saw the Mi4 flagship and some rumors claim that the company is waiting for the launch of the new Snapdragon 820 chipset. So it makes sense to put the best chip inside the new company flagship. And if Smartisan is joining the likes of Xiaomi, it should be for its new Smartisan T2 flagship.
Well, these are just speculations at this moment based on the information that’s available right now. But if Xiaomi Mi5 does come with Snapdragon 820, expect a launch only around November-December 2015.
Do you think Snapdragon 820 will help Qualcomm win back the trust of the customers in the high-end segment?
