LG G7 Will Reportedly Be Powered By Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 Chip

A new report claims that LG and Qualcomm are teaming up for the next-generation Snapdragon 845 chip, and it might arrive on the LG G7 next year.

Industry sources are claiming that the LG G7, which will arrive in 2018, will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 processor, according to The Korea Herald. The Snapdragon 845 is being based on a 7nm manufacturing process and is said to be 30 percent more efficient than the Snapdragon 835, which is Qualcomm’s current high-end processor.

If this is true, then this marks a significant change in how LG builds its flagship smartphone. When the LG G6 was announced earlier this year, it was equipped with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 821 processor. Although the chip performs well on the phone, it was still behind the faster and more efficient Snapdragon 835, which Samsung acquired for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus.

LG wanted to launch the LG G6 ahead of Samsung’s Galaxy S8 flagships, but in order to do that, it had no choice but to opt for the Snapdragon 821. The inclusion of SD 821 is the reason why a lot of consumers were turned off by the LG G6. Some felt that they were not getting a device that comes with the “best and latest.”

Despite all that, LG claims that the Snapdragon 821 is more than enough for the LG G6. The phone maker says that the SD 821 guarantees better software optimization and stability. For next year, LG might no longer need to compromise with a slower and less efficient chipset for the G7 thanks to Qualcomm.

This isn’t actually the first time that Qualcomm has approached a major smartphone brand for its upcoming new processor. It’s been previously reported that the chip maker was working with Samsung to place the Snapdragon 845 on the Galaxy S9 next year, accoridng to Android Authority.

With that in mind, it’s unclear which 2018 flagship Android smartphone will hit the market first. However, it is good to know that the LG G7 and Samsung’s Galaxy S9 will both be on the same playing field come next year.

“The adoption of the Snapdragon 845 for LG’s next flagship phone seems inevitable, considering the emerging virtual reality and augmented reality solutions require more powerful data processing capability,” an industry official said.

This might be hinting that LG’s G7 will offer more augmented and virtual reality features. The G6 may have an HDR-capable display, but it lacked support for Google’s virtual reality platform, Daydream. The G6 only has an IPS LCD display, and Google Daydream requires handsets with an AMOLED panel.

A previous leak claims that the Snapdragon 845 will be based on 10nm manufacturing process, not 7nm. The chipset is also said to come with new A75 and A55 CPU cores, according to the Android Guys.

Although these are all rumors for now, it seems very likely that Qualcomm is already working on the successor of the Snapdragon 835. The chip maker has consistently been providing high-end chipsets every year which almost always ends up on major flagship smartphones from various OEMs.