Windows 10
A new smartphone dubbed "HP Falcon" powered by Windows 10 Mobile and Snapdragon 820 is set for February 2016 launch, says report. Reuters/Shannon Stapleton

During the beginning of December, a mystery device called “HP Falcon” cropped up out of nowhere on the GFXBench site. This device was powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 820 chipset and ran on Windows 10 Mobile OS. Now, a new report points to the launch timeframe of this HP handset.

According to WMPowerUser citing the credible German portal Dr. Windows, the Windows 10 handset, also known as HP Falcon, will be announced at the Mobile World Congress or MWC 2016 event. This conference takes place between Feb. 22 and Feb. 25, 2016.

When this device first surfaced, it was reported that the HP Falcon will carry a huge 5.8-inch display, bundled with 2,560 x 1,440 pixels screen resolution. As mentioned earlier, S820 will be housed on the handset to power the device. This chipset has been visiting several benchmark testing sites via different devices for some time now.

Technically, the powerful Snapdragon 820 is manufactured by following the efficient 14nm process with 64-bit architecture. This chipset uses Qualcomm’s own Kryo cores. Working in tandem with the chip is a powerful Adreno 530 GPU for graphics. This GPU will apparently be 40 percent faster when compared to the Adreno 430 seen in the over-heating issue prone Snapdragon 810.

When it comes to camera configuration, this handset is believed to sport a 20-megapixel rear-facing sensor and a super-cool 12-megapixel secondary shooter for selfies.

Tech portals were initially skeptical about the name and the brand of the handset, as no one was expecting a smartphone from HP. This doubt was fuelled further by another rumor pointing to a new Microsoft device under development to trump the company’s own Lumia 950 XL. Ultimately, the name “HP Falcon” was considered as a code name, back then. But now, it’s clear that the tech giant HP is indeed working to launch the new device.

As always, readers are advised to take the reported HP Falcon-related details with the proverbial pinch of salt as the company has not confirmed any information thus far.

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