After originally announcing the Snapdragon 835 last year, Qualcomm today offered more details on its new flagship processor.
Qualcomm touts that the Snapdragon 835, which is made using a new 10nm design, is 35 percent smaller than the Snapdragon 820 that came before it. That should help to free up some space inside 835-powered smartphones, where space is at a premium. You can see the two processors side-by-side in the image below.
The Snapdragon 835 is also more power efficient that its predecessor. Qualcomm says that the 835 is engineered to use 25 percent less power than the previous generation Snapdragon chipset.
Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are a major focus of the Snapdragon 835, with the processor packing faster 3D graphic rendering and more display colors to help power these emerging experiences. Qualcomm also touts the Snapdragon 835’s camera performance, which is said to offer improved zoom stabilization as well as better phase and lighting detection.
Another feature of the Snapdragon 835 is its Snapdragon X16 Gigabit LTE modem, which supports peak download speeds up to 10 times faster than first-gen LTE devices. The Snapdragon X16 includes support for 256 QAM digital signal processing, 4x4 MIMO, and up to 4X carrier aggregation, all of which can add up to faster network speeds for you.
The Snapdragon 835 is expected to ship in commercial devices in the first half of 2017. One of the first devices to be powered by the 835 are ODG’s augmented reality smartglasses, which you can see below.
