Qualcomm yesterday announced its most powerful processor ever in Snapdragon 845 that will not only power all next-gen smartphone flagships but also connected PCs. Qualcomm will reveal the complete details about Snapdragon 845 today but one can expect it to be 20-30% more powerful than Snapdragon 835.
Most of the flagship Android smartphones today are powered by Snapdragon 835 including Nokia 8 and the 2018 flagship smartphones with SD845 won’t be available before March-April 2018. Reason behind this is the gap between when Qualcomm announces its processors and when they actually become available for manufacturers to test in their smartphones.
So, we can expect minimum 3-4 months’ gap between announcement of Snapdragon 845 and the availability of the first smartphone powered by it in the market. Announcements may still happen like Xiaomi announcing yesterday that its Mi 7 flagship will be powered by Snapdragon 845.
Samsung however may be the first manufacturer to plonk Snapdragon 845 in its upcoming flagship Galaxy S9. In fact, Qualcomm will use Samsung foundry for manufacturing of Snapdragon 845.
Amon then came back on stage to invite ES Jung, president and general manager of the foundry business, Samsung Electronics, to confirm Samsung Foundry will be the foundry for Snapdragon 845 as the Companies continue to work together to advance the silicon manufacturing process.
While HMD has yet to comment on Snapdragon 845 announcement it is widely expected that the next-gen Nokia Android flagships may arrive with Snapdragon 845 processor. But the upcoming Nokia 9 is supposed to arrive with Snapdragon 835 only.
