Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 Mobile Platform Announced For Always Connected Windows 10 PCs

Qualcomm has officially announced the Snapdragon 850 mobile platform for Windows 10 PCs. The new processor will be powering new Always Connected Windows 10 PCs that are scheduled to arrive during the 2018 holiday season.

The Snapdragon 850 processor is almost exactly like the Snapdragon 845. However, the 850 was specifically designed for Always Connected Windows 10 PCs. The Snapdragon 850 includes the Snapdragon 845’s Kryo 385 CPU cores, an Adreno 630 GPU, Hexagon 685 DSP, support for 1.2Gbps LTE and Spectra 280 image signal processor, according to Android Police. The Snapdragon 850 also gets a slight CPU boost with 2.96GHz speed versus the 2.8GHz in the 845.

Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 850 will support up to 30 percent system-wide increase in performance and up to three times AI performance over the previous generation. The new mobile platform will also be able to deliver up to 25 hours of multi-day battery life under normal usage.

The mobile platform has hardware and software tuning to make it perform better for PC-specific tasks. The Snapdragon 850 will have native support in Windows 10 ARM64 apps through the 64-bit Win32 SDK. The mobile platform will also support the 64-bit version of the Microsoft Edge web browser. Qualcomm says Samsung will be the very first manufacturer to release an Always Connected Windows 10 PC that’s powered by the Snapdragon 850. Engadget speculates that the upcoming Samsung device is a 2-in-1 Windows 10 PC.

“Building on the portfolio of Always On, Always Connected PCs established over the past year, we are thrilled to work with Samsung to help offer consumers true mobility combined with the productivity and entertainment features of Windows 10,” senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm’s mobile business unit Alex Katouzian said. “To truly expand this category, our work with mobile leaders like Samsung is important to help us deliver the next generation of Always On, Always Connected PCs to consumers.”

The very first Always Connected Windows 10 PCs powered by the Snapdragon 835 were manufactured by Asus, HP and Lenovo and were first revealed back in December. The announcement of the Snapdragon 850 mobile platform means that other manufacturers might also release new Always Connected Windows 10 PCs in the near future. The most recent rumor right now is that Dell is working on a new device that features dual screens.