Qualcomm today announced its next flagship mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 835. The firm partnered with Samsung Electronics to use its 10nm FinFET process, which promises to "revolutionize mobile tech".
To put things in perspective, 10nm is the size of a single molecule of water, or 1,000th the size of a strand of hair. Of course, that likely doesn't matter to you; instead, you're wondering what this will mean for your next smartphone.
Generally, the smaller that that size is, the more efficient of a processor it will be. This means that you can count on it being more battery-efficient, all in a smaller form factor.
But while the chip will use less juice, it will still be more powerful. Qualcomm promises that Samsung's 10nm technology will allow for 27% better performance with 40% less power consumption than its predecessor.
Snapdragon 835 will follow the Snapdragon 820 and 821 - which used 14nm FinFET - as Qualcomm's flagship mobile chipset. For reference, Snapdragon 808 and 810 were 20nm, and Snapdragon 800, 801, and 805 were 28nm. The company seems to have skipped over the Snapdragon 830, which was rumored to be 10nm.
Right now, the company's flagship chips are right on par with Intel's Kaby Lake, which are 14nm as well. Intel is planning on going to 10nm with Cannonlake, but with Kaby Lake still being rolled out, it could be a while before we see them.
There's not much else that we know about the Snapdragon 835, except that Qualcomm is expecting to ship it within the first half of 2017.
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