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Home / News / Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 800 chip brings 4K video to smartphones

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 800 chip brings 4K video to smartphones

Watch out Tegra 4 - there's a dragon snapping at your heels, and it's got some formidable teeth

Qualcomm has uncaged its latest processor – the Snapdragon 800 – hot on the heels of Nvidia’s Tegra 4 launch, and its safe to say that it’s got a very powerful bite indeed.

The quad-core Snapdragon 800 will be capable of a mind-melting 2.3GHz per core and will serve up to 75 per cent more power than the current Android processor king -the Snapdragon S4 – which is found in pocket powerhouses like the Google Nexus 4 and upcoming Sony Xperia Z.

So what will all that extra grunt give you? Well, it’ll support camera phones with up to 55 megapixels, 7.1 audio and, believe it or not, 4K video recording and decoding.

As if that wasn’t enough, the next-gen silicon will also be packing a newer Adreno 330 graphics processor which is twice as powerful as the one found in the current S4.

Not only is the Snapdragon 800 also more powerful than its predecessor, but its also more efficient and, coupled with its on-board 4G LTE radio (something the Tegra 4 lacks), we should see an improvement in battery life despite all that extra power.

Qualcomm also announced the Snapdragon 600 which although not as powerful as the 800, will still offer better performance than the S4.

We can’t wait to compare phones and tablets packing Qualcomm and Nvidia’s latest CPUs within and we expect to see a lot more at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month, so stay tuned.

In the meantime, check out the rest of our Stuff-tastic CES 2013 coverage.

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Profile image of Chris Rowlands Chris Rowlands Freelance contributor

About

Formerly News Editor at this fine institution, Chris now writes about tech from his tropical office. Sidetracked by sustainable stuff, he’s also keen on coffee kit, classic cars and any gear that gets better with age.

Areas of expertise

Cameras, gear and travel tech

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