Qualcomm Announces Next-gen Snapdragon 835 SoC Built Using Samsung’s 10nm FinFET Technology

Qualcomm has today announced that it’s teamed up with Samsung to help craft its next-gen Snapdragon processor, 835. This chip will be built around Samsung’s 10nm FinFET processor, which versus a 14nm process allows Qualcomm to improve performance, battery-life, and general efficiency.

The San Diego-based semiconductor company says that its Snapdragon 835, when compared to the last-generation (820, presumably), is 27% faster and uses 40% less power, which doesn’t even take into account improvements of the architecture.

As of the time of writing, Qualcomm is keeping mum on most of the juiciest details surrounding its 835. Earlier this year, rumors began to float around that it could be an octal-core chip, essentially doubling the potential throughput of the 821 and 820. It’s also rumored that the clock speed can reach 1GHz better than current models, upwards of 3.60GHz. We’re not sure how likely that actually is going to be, but whatever improvements we’ll see are sure to be worthwhile.

Other speculated improvements include a 1Gbps download pipe over LTE Cat 16, and 150Mbps down over LTE Cat 13. The updated platform could also take advantage of the fastest LPDDR4X, and boosts Bluetooth from 4.1 to 4.2. As with Snapdragon 821 and 820, 835 supports up to ad wireless, although it seems unlikely that the first crop of devices will actually include its support (rather, it’s likely to be capped to ac).

With CES right around the corner, let’s hope that more details about the Snapdragon 835 will be revealed there. It’d be nice to learn more well before then, but Qualcomm seems to be keeping it cool right now.

Tying into the launch of the 835, Qualcomm has also announced an upgrade to its Quick Charge technology, with the latest iteration being Quick Charge 4. With it, Qualcomm says that users will be able to charge their phone up to 20% faster and enjoy a 30% improvement in efficiency, compared to Quick Charge 3.0. What’s this actually mean? Qualcomm says, “Quick Charge 4 addresses that need by providing up to 50 percent battery charge in roughly 15 minutes or less”.

That sounds great to us.