For the past couple of years the engine behind some of the most popular smartphone flagships has come from the Qualcomm Snapdragon range. Whilst the new Snapdragon 810 chip powers the likes of the HTC One M9, the company is seeing decreasing amounts of top tier devices opting for the newest Snapdragon model.
This is a large turn around in fortunes from a year ago where Qualcomm processors were found in nearly all of the flagship Android smartphones. Is there a specific problem with the new Snapdragon 810 processor?
Over the past year smartphone manufactures have largely chosen to avoid the 810 chip. Samsung, for instance, side-stepped Qualcomm altogether with the Exynos chips in the Galaxy S6, and the new LG G4 goes with the slightly (very slightly) lower-end 808 model. Choices like those have helped fuel rumors of problems with the 810, and specifically claims of overheating.
These claims might be largely overblown but in a recent Forbes interview with Qualcomm VP of marketing Tim McDonough the exec speaks out about the rumors. McDonough was resolute in his assertion that the rumors of the 810 overheating are “rubbish”. He also stated that – “there was not an overheating problem with the Snapdragon 810 in commercial devices.“
He did however concede that earlier development hardware ran at higher temperatures, but that somewhere along the way, rumors about pre-release 810 components snowballed into this tale that the final commercial chip was similarly compromised. McDonough also added that – “œsomeone very artfully took [reports of hot-running 810 dev hardware] and used it to fuel the rumors.“
In our recent review of the HTC One M9 (read it here) we did mention that the device heated up after extended usage (such as long video play or gaming). It wasn’t a concerning distraction and never overheated as to render the device unusable. Never the less there seems to be a bit of truth behind these rumors.
Source: Forbes
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