Snapdragon 835: Qualcomm’s next high-end chip revealed

Qualcomm chips are found in tons of smartphones around the world, being the de facto choice for many flagship devices. Now, the company has peeled the curtain back on the Snapdragon 835, being its latest high-end chip.

The company didn’t reveal many details about the processor, so don’t expect core count, GPU and other major details here. But what has Qualcomm said about it though?

Well, the firm announced that the chip will be designed on a smaller 10nm FinFET process by Samsung, as opposed to the 14nm process of the Snapdragon 820. Generally speaking, the move to a smaller process results in less heat and better power efficiency (therefore, better battery life on paper).

“Using the new 10nm process node is expected to allow our premium tier Snapdragon 835 processor to deliver greater power efficiency and increase performance while also allowing us to add a number of new capabilities that can improve the user experience of tomorrow’s mobile devices,” said Keith Kressin, senior vice president of product management at the chipmaker.

Little is known about the Snapdragon 835 just yet, but there’s no doubt that loads of manufacturers will use it

Qualcomm also claims that the move to the smaller size will result in more space for manufacturers to play with, potentially enabling bigger batteries or slimmer designs.

Another confirmed feature for the new chip is Quick Charge 4.0 support, offering five hours of smartphone use for five minutes of charging.

A Qualcomm representative added that the charging system provides “up to 50 percent battery charge in roughly 15 minutes or less”.

Of course, the Snapdragon 835 is expected to power many phones in 2017, but when can we expect these devices?

“Snapdragon 835 is in production now and expected to ship in commercial devices in the first half of 2017,” the company wrote.