Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 820 was meant to make everyone forgive it for the 810 and now that it seems to have gotten that, it is ready to take the next step. The Snapdragon 821. Building upon the custom Kryo cores powering the 820, Qualcomm claims that this new SoC offers a 10% performace bump.
Since this is not a generational successor, the 821 stays close to the 820 in terms of design. What this means that this too is quad-core setup consisting of 4 64-bit CPU cores that can be clocked as high as 2.4 GHz. To put things in perspective, the 820 topped out at 2.15 GHz. This does make it easy to say where the 10% improved performance comes from.
The 810 garnered plenty of criticism for its heating issues and the 821 seems to stay close to the 820 because of how stable it has proven in the thermal management department. Qualcomm reassures that the 821 isn’t meant to replace the 820, only to extend its flagship lineup. This means that we’ll continue to see phones with the 820 in the near future. This does offer an unique opportunity for manufacturers launching two versions of their flagships, as they can differentiate between the 2 in the SoC without creating too much of a rift.
One of the most likely candidates for the 820 is one of the 2 new Nexus devices that are due later this year. Now it is time to see who comes with the 821 first so that it can be put to the test.
[Source: Qualcomm]