Qualcomm on Monday unveiled the follow up to its Snapdragon 820 processor: the Snapdragon 821.
Boasting a 10 percent increase in speed over its predecessor, the 821 chip will be capable of speeds up to 2.4 GHz and will come with greater power savings and improved application performance.
Despite the improvements, though, Qualcomm said the new chip isn’t designed to replace the 820. Rather, the company said the 821 will “complement and extend the competitive strengths” of its 800-series lineup to keep pace with performance demands.
“Because the Snapdragon 820 helped improve the user experience for mobile imaging, virtual reality, battery life, and connectivity speed and reliability, all the updates we’ve included in Snapdragon 821 will help keep devices powered by Snapdragon 800 premium-tier processors at the top of people’s shopping lists into the foreseeable future,” Qualcomm said in its release.
Qualcomm said the new chip is expected to hit the market in commercial devices released in the second half of this year.
The reveal comes just eight months after Qualcomm debuted the 820 in November 2015 and just six months after the first Snapdragon 820-powered phone – the Letv Le Max Pro – was announced at CES in January.
According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 820 has already been deployed in more than 115 smartphones and tablets, including the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Galaxy S7 Edge, Xiaomi Mi5, LG G5, HTC 10, LeEco LeMax 2, and Sony Xperia X.
Qualcomm said the 821 will “help set a new bar for smartphones, tablets, mobile VR head mounted displays and other new devices,” but did not provide specifics. More information will be forthcoming “soon,” the company said.
