New Snapdragon 845 processor

Snapdragon 845. © Qualcomm.

On Wednesday, Qualcomm unveiled its latest system-on-a-chip (SoC), Snapdragon 845, which will power all new high-end Android phones as of next year. Built by Samsung, the 10nm chip promises increased energy-efficiency combined with superior performance and 25% more speed than the previous generation. A new image signal processor (ISP) can capture 4K video in HDR at 60 fps, which matches the performance of the current generation of iPhones. The CPU, the Kryo 385, is an ARM Cortex processor with 4 “performance” cores clocked at 2.8GHz and 4 “efficiency” cores at 1.8GHz.

Also in the news, a year after Microsoft announced a new ARM version of Windows 10, two Windows computers that run on Snapdragon 835 have been launched: the Asus NovaGo 2-in-1 portable computer and the HP Envy x2 tablet. These systems can operate for an astounding 25 hours between charges. They’re available as of next spring, though no price has been announced.

⇨ Ars Technica, “Snapdragon 845 unveiled with 25-percent faster CPU, 30-percent faster graphics.”

⇨ The Verge, “These are the first Windows 10 ARM laptops.”