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Snapdragon 805 Performance Overview: 4K Displays & 55MP Cameras Are Go!
Qualcomm has unveiled its brand new Snapdragon 805 chipset. Here’s everything you need to know
Qualcomm has just unveiled its brand new mobile processor, the Snapdragon 805. Building on from 2013’s Snapdragon 800, the 805 chipset brings in support for 4K displays and a ton of new imaging technology, as well as some pretty impressive power savings over its already-impressive predecessor.
Inside you’ll find Qualcomm’s new Krait 450 CPU and a brand new, 4K-munching Adreno 420 GPU. Each of the Krait CPUs can be clocked up to 2.7GHz and the introduction of the new Adreno 420 GPU brings with its 4K gaming and insane 4K imaging capabilities, with support for 55MP sensors, as well as advanced post-processing abilities (“Hollywood Quality Video”, the ability to make 1080p content look like it’s 4K, for instance) and 4K HEVC (H.265) hardware video decode.
“We’re betting big on 4K”
4K TVs were all the rage at CES 2014, and since then services like YouTube and Netflix have begun doing 4K-enabled content. Which is great. But there is one problem: 4K TVs are bloody expensive. Like, £1500-£3000 expensive, which of course is something of a barrier for most people. And this is why Qualcomm believes it will be mobile – not TVs – that drives mass adoption of 4K technologies in the coming months and years.
4K & Mobile: Perfect Bedfellows?
The logic behind this assertion is three-fold, according to Qualcomm: 1) phones are A LOT cheaper than 4K TVs, 2) people upgrade their phones more often than their TV sets and 3) you can already create your own 4K content on handsets like the Galaxy S5. Viewed in this context: mobile and 4K do seem like perfect bedfellows.
Expand the idea further, with reference to how and what people do most with their phones, and things start to make even more sense: imaging, video capture, gaming and VOD would all benefit from 4K. And because Qualcomm is now “doing” 4K that, by proxy, means pretty much every major handset/tablet maker in the mobile space will too. The company is an enabler: it builds stuff, OEMs use it and things change forever. This happened with LTE over the past couple of years, and now it’s time for 4K
The first batch of Snapdragon 805 handsets and tablets will be arriving during the second half of 2014, and yesterday we got our first hands-on with the chipset live from Qualcomm’s San Francisco launch. Is this the next big thing? Should you be excited? Has the Snapdragon 800 just got its ass handed to it? Read on to find out more.
Initial benchmarks of the Snapdragon 805, captured on a 4K Qualcomm reference tablet, are, as you’d expect, brutal. Everything is up. Across the board – CPU, GPU and memory performance all surpass the already-impressive Snapdragon 800. The Adreno 420 GPU enables 60fps playback beyond 1080p and delivers solid, noticeable improvements you’ll feel throughout the handset. Epic stuff, indeed.
One could argue the Snapdragon 805 is a bit pointless, something of a stopgap between now and the launch of Qualcomm’s first high-end 64-bit Snapdragon 808 and 810 chipsets in the first half of 2015. And you might have a point, too. But that’s not how the company operates, nor is it the type of behavior that got it to where it is today. No, in Qualcomm’s eyes, 4K needs doing and rather than waiting around until 2015, biding its time or counting its money, the company has decided to just do it now. Which is great news for handset makers, tech-lovers and people that like looking at things in ridiculously high resolution.
And the best part? Qualcomm says the 805 is 20% more power efficient than its predecessor, so you’ll notice some pretty significant battery uplift too. The Snapdragon 805 also features LTE-A CAT 6, support for up to 10GB of RAM and a myriad of additional updates, tweaks and power efficiency optimizations.
Basically – the best just got A LOT better, as you can see from the benchmarks below:
Over to you, Intel/NVIDIA/MediaTek….