When compared to other press conferences, Qualcomm is the most simplistic as the company has put much of its focus onto the Snapdragon 820. While the reveal of a single chip isn’t all that impressive, what IS impressive is where the chip is going.
Let’s start with the basics. The Snapdragon 820 will be powering smartphones in the near future. One of the first smartphones that will be using the 820 is the LeTV Le Max Pro. Details surround the phone is scarce but Qualcomm CEO Steven Mollenkopf revealed that the extra processing power of the Snapdragon 820 allows the Le Max Pro to utilize an ultrasonic fingerprint detector. This ultrasonic detector allows the sensor to be placed anywhere on the phone and is much more reliable than a standard glass processor. Mollenkopf states that the version included in the Le Max Pro is just an early iteration of the sensor and we can expect a much more sophisticate one down the line.
With the phone out of the way, Qualcomm shifts its focus onto automotives by way of Mollenkopf announcing that Qualcomm will be entering a new partnership with Audi. This partnership will see Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 602A processor be implemented into Audi’s 2016 A5 lineup. This allows the cars to be able to connect to Wi-Fi quickly and reliably.
A specialized version of the 820 will also be made specifically for cars. This variant of the 820 will be capable of handling multiple HD displays, GPS and GLONASS tracking, as well as traffic sign and lane tracking in real time. On stage, Qualcomm demoed the 820’s ability to seamlessly move a GPS navigation app to the dashboard display while maintaining a separate, secondary navigation app on an entirely different screen. Besides driver assitance, the 820 can also be used for passenger entertainment as it is able to output multiple HD streaming services to multiple seperate HD displays.
While the car demo is certainly impressive, it seems that Qualcomm is looking beyond the automotive industry. Mollenkopf envisions that the processor can be used on smaller scale devices such as wearables and modern health monitors as the Snapdragon.
Rounding up the presentation, Qualcomm reveals more details about the Snapdragon Flight drone platform. Mollenkopf confirmed that one of the first droones to use the Snapdragon Flight will be Tencent’s YING, and it specialize in 4K video capture and sharing.
Suffice to say, Qualcomm is getting very ambitious for 2016.
