Qualcomm teased the upcoming release of its new flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 835, back in November but with CES 2017 just a day away, we’re getting more and more information about their new flagship level CPU. With the 820 and 821 still currently being used in upcoming devices, such as the ASUS Zenfone AR, the question that most of us are asking is: “What can we expect the Snaprdragon 835 to bring to the table?” We’ve sniffed around for information at our usual sources to see what we could dig up about the soon-to-be announced SoC, and it seems like noted gadget leakster — Evan Blass — has done it again and has “gotten” a copy of the press release from Qualcomm.

After reading through the press release and the opinions of other tech journalists, here are the three key features we’re looking forward to on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835.

Smaller Build, Better Performance

The Snapdragon 835 will be 30 percent smaller than Snapdragon 820, and is the first 10-nanometer CPU from Qualcomm. Despite its diminutive size, the 835 will perform 27 percent faster and will require 40 percent less juice to keep it powered up. According to the “leaked” press release, we can expect the Snapdragon 835 to go the distance in terms of battery life with 1 day worth of talk time , 5 days worth of music playback, and 7 hours of 4K video consumption. It will also support Qualcomm Quick Charge 4, which the company says can give you five hours worth of battery life in just 5 minutes of charging; we’ll have to see it to believe it but that does sound intriguing, doesn’t it?

Built for AR and VR Content

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality content is on the rise for mobile devices and Qualcomm seeks to build on what they’ve done with their current crop of flagship CPUs. Qualcomm aims to increase the enjoyment of AR and VR content with a focus on three major points: accurate audio, vibrant visuals, and intuitive interactions.

The Snapdragon 835 is said to render 3D graphics 25 percent faster and display 60 times more colors when compared to the 820. To achieve a better auditory experience, the 835 has audiophile grade DSD (Direct Stream Digital) with support for object and scene-based audio. Interaction, of course, plays a huge role in AR and VR, and Qualcomm hopes to achieve the third point of focus by decreasing motion-to-photon latency by 20 percent; plus better motion tracking with six-degrees-of-motion-freedom. That’s a lot of fancy terms, but at the end of the day it just means that the 835 will track your movements better and these movements will be reflected on your display with less delay.

Taking Mobile Phone Photography to New Heights

A good camera is probably on everyone’s criteria when looking for their next smartphone purchase and Qualcomm has made several improvements to their SoC to help consumers get better photos and videos. People who enjoy taking snaps with their mobile device can expect better image stabilization and smoother zooms with the Snapdragon 835, thanks to its Adreno 540 GPU, Qualcomm Hexagon Digital Signal Processing, and Qualcomm Spectra 180 Image Signal Processor. The autofocus system has also been greatly improved upon and now supports dual photodiodes plus an enhanced hybrid autofocus. If you’re into making video content with your smartphone, Qualcomm’s EIS 3.0 means that 4K video will not only be crisp but will be smoother with 2-axis stabilization plus rolling shutter correction.

There are, of course, more improvements that were made with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and that’s all fine and dandy, but we can’t wait to see how the processor from Qualcomm performs in real world scenarios when a device equipped with the new processor lands at Unbox HQ. Expect to hear more about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 and other relevant tech and gadget news as we draw closer to CES 2017.

Source: Engadget, Android Authority, Evan Blass