Snapdragon 835: review of Qualcomm's new super processor for mobile devices

Among other things, it is promised that the battery life of mobile devices will be increased, web surfing will be accelerated and the level of security will be increased.

The new processor for top smartphones from Qualcomm is called the Snapdragon 835. With an integrated graphics core, an image processing core, a Hexagon-DSP and an LTE modem that allows you to download information at a maximum theoretical speed of up to 1 Gbps, the 835 is a real a “system on a chip” (SoC) and therefore much more than just a smartphone processor.

Qualcomm clearly envisions smartphones as the area of ​​application for the new Snapdragon, but it will certainly be used in VR glasses, as well as in tablets and mobile computers. In particular, Microsoft announced at the end of 2016 that Windows 10 on the latest generation of top-end Snapdragons will have to work with all applications.

For users, using Snapdragon 835 means optimal control in five main scenarios.

A few more details about the processor

The 835 will be the first ARM-SoC manufactured using the 10nm FinFET process, manufactured by Samsung Semiconductors. Unlike the immediate predecessors of the Snapdragon 820 family, the processor named Kryo 280 is not based entirely on its own developments. Instead, Qaulcomm, by its own admission, uses eight custom-tailored ARM Cortex A cores. Four ") serve particularly demanding applications and can operate at clock speeds of up to 2.45 GHz. The remaining four cores (“efficiency cores”) will process the lion’s share of common tasks and, with a maximum clock frequency of 1.9 GHz, work significantly more energy efficient.

According to Qualcomm, all eight cores can work either “on their own” or “together.” At the same time, four cores in the “productive” cluster operate at the same clock frequency. The same applies to the cores of the “energy efficient” block. Symphony System Manager offers application developers finely tuned access to system resources and even allows them to choose which hardware component (CPU, GPU or DSP) specific code should run on for best performance.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC review: a successful chip every now and then?

Table of contents

• Introduction
• Specifications
• Acquaintance
• CPU scalability and stability
• Stability of GPU Adreno 540
• Nuances of working with memory
• On practice
• Conclusion

Introduction

After the review of the Samsung Galaxy S8+, it made sense to study the operation of the new chip in more detail, even though very little time was allocated for this and it was not possible to test everything that was planned.
However, some conclusions can be drawn now. Let me remind you that we have already looked at the nuances of the operation of the SoC MediaTek Helio X20, Xiaomi Surge S1 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. It should be noted that Qualcomm produces the top model every once in a while: the Snapdragon S4 Pro got very hot and was not very productive compared to its competitors; The Snapdragon 800 ran no less hot, but had very good performance, which made it possible to forget about interface microlags starting with Android 4.4.

After several unpopular modifications, the extremely unsuccessful Snapdragon 810 was released with asymmetric cores, a hot temper and high power consumption, but the successor Snapdragon 820, which returned the normal scheme of core operation, turned out to be a very successful chip. This is what a “zebra” looks like.

Now we are reviewing the Snapdragon 835, which again returns to the eight-core layout, but combines two modules with “large-caliber” cores of the modified Kryo 280 architecture. However, it’s worth looking at the technical characteristics and everything will fall into place.

announcements and advertising

RTX 3070 Ti Aorus at a non-Ti price

RTX 3080 for 288 tr in Citylink

RTX 3090 MSI for 539 TR

Earn money by participating in the content of our site

Another 3080 is even cheaper - see the price

Cool 3060 Ti Gigabyte Aorus fell in price 2 times

Specifications

In addition to eight cores, the new product received a new GPU, more energy-efficient LPDDR4X memory and an advanced 10 nm process technology by Samsung. If you take a closer look, it will become obvious that there are not many changes relative to its predecessor, the core architecture has not changed much, and memory bandwidth has not changed either.

There remains hope for an increased number of cores and an advanced technical process, which should allow all this power to be used within the TDP.

Acquaintance

In our review of the Snapdragon 820, we complained about the low speed of the chip per thread, which did not increase much even compared to the extremely unsuccessful Snapdragon 810.

If we take the same GeekBench 4 as an example, we can see that the new product has done little to correct this situation. While Apple chips are evolving quite evenly, increasing both in speed with a single thread and with multi-threaded workloads,...

... in the Android world, things are not so simple. Yes, many applications are already able to work with more than two threads, but it is unwise to neglect the speed of working with one thread of calculations, since this directly affects the smooth operation of the gadget.

Another thing is the GPU. Here performance has improved significantly, especially at high resolutions and when using “fresh” APIs. If you do not take into account throttling, then there is nowhere to really use such peak performance, and we can only hope for the rapid development of VR/AR projects in which such power may be useful.

CHIP's opinion

This may be interesting: Qualcomm, represented by the Snapdragon 835, promises the appearance of an SoC, which on paper leaves a remarkable impression. The fact that the American manufacturer is giving an even greater role to the heterogeneity of the architecture, when each component can show its greatest strengths, instead of just continuing to increase the number of GHz, should appeal primarily to end users.

Speaking of user interests, Qualcomm continues to consider energy efficiency one of the most important qualities of the Snapdragon 835 processor. This should please all users whose high-tech smartphones run out of steam quite quickly. Last but not least, support for LTE Cat16 should ensure the most efficient use of “radio” resources and thus will help even those users who do not even know why a mobile device needs a download speed of 1 Gbit/s.

However, Qualcomm has yet to deliver on its promise of increased performance while reducing power consumption. The potential risk is that the manufacturer is again using ARM's Cortex design instead of relying entirely on its own designs, as in the case of the Snapdragon 820. But once everything went awry: in the Snapdragon 810, Qualcomm used “pure” ones. ARM Cortex cores, which almost got burned - smartphones with 810 SoCs encountered massive problems with overheating and, as a result, reduced operating speed.

Of course, the manufacturer is quite familiar with these problems. In a conversation with Chip editors, a Qualcomm manager tirelessly repeated that in the case of the 835, nothing like this would happen. This should be taken care of by the very deep and wide-ranging changes that Qualcomm engineers have made to the Cortex cores. We're looking forward to the first smartphones equipped with the Snapdragon 835, which Qualcomm says should hit the market in the first half of 2022.

What awaits smartphones with a Snapdragon 835 processor, or why is 10 nm so important?

So, what awaits smartphones with Snapdragon 835 processor? First of all, the audience was intrigued by the manufacturing process, which uses a 10-nanometer laser to etch transistors onto the surface of a crystal coated with a dielectric. Such a thin beam made it possible to increase the density of Snapdragon 835 transistors by reducing the dimensions of barriers and dielectric fins. Previously, manufacturers used 14 or 16-nanometer lasers, producing chips of large dimensions.

But size, as you know, is not the main thing. The main value of the 10nm process technology can be explained by the characteristics of the Snapdragon 835. This processor is 35% smaller in size and consumes 25% less power than the previous model - the 14nm Snapdragon 820. Thanks to this, smartphones with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor can become even thinner, and their batteries will last even longer.

In addition, the improved chip architecture made it possible to increase computing power, so the Snapdragon 835 was 20% more productive than the 820 model during bench measurements. The new processor turned out to be so good that it was able to cope not only with Android applications, but also with Win32 format programs. Thanks to this, on the Snapdragon 835 meringue you can build a unique mobile device that can replace a smartphone, a laptop, and even a classic desktop computer running an operating system from the Windows family.

Snapdragon 835 phones: monsters for gamers with unique Adreno 540 graphics

In addition to the 8-core unit based on Kryo 280, the Snapdragon 835 structure includes the Adreno 540 graphics chip. The power of this “video card” has increased by 25% compared to the previous generation adapters. In addition, Adreno 540 can synchronize its frequency with the display frequency, guaranteeing instant response in games, operates DirectX 12 and supports HDR10.

Thanks to this, Adreno 540 begins to “tread on the heels” of computer video cards, bringing closer the emergence of a universal module that will be used as a smartphone and a system unit for a home or office PC. The Adreno 540 graphics chip is ready to work with displays that support ultra-high picture resolution (UHD 4K).

Update. The Exynos 8895 was recently introduced. The new Samsung processor should become the main competitor to the Snapdragon 835. Specifications of the Exynos 8895 and comparison with the SD-835 in the material Exynos 8895: chipset for the Galaxy S8.

Qualcomm Hexagon – its own DSP processor

In addition to Adreno 540, the Snapdragon 835 has an additional Qualcomm Hexagon DSP processor, which boosts the chipset’s performance when working with multimedia content and dense information flows. This chip allows you to increase processor productivity by 25 times and is useful for full interaction of a mobile device with virtual reality.

In addition, thanks to the Aqstic WCD9341 audio codec and DSP processor, smartphones based on Snapdragon 835 will be able to operate an audio stream of ultra-high sound quality (32-bit/384 kHz). This phone will beat any audio player.

Qualcomm Spectra 180 – camera processor

Qualcomm Spectra 180 processors are responsible for processing video and photos in the Snapdragon 835 chipset. Thanks to these modules, a smartphone built on the basis of the 835 model will be able to record 4K video at a speed of at least 60 frames per second and take photos with a resolution of up to 32 MP. Not every professional camera offers such capabilities. In addition, the Spectra 180 supports hardware-based hybrid autofocus, accelerated face detection, HDR video recording and optical zoom.

Qualcomm Haven - a new level of biometric identification

Thanks to the DSP processor and the Qualcomm Haven platform, the Snapdragon 835 processor will be able to support deep biometric verification based on scanning the user's fingerprint, retina and facial contours. The use of Snapdragon 835 turns a smartphone based on this processor into a digital safe. It will simply be impossible to hack such a device without cooperation with the smartphone manufacturer.

Performance Leaders

Only flagships with high performance are created based on this processor. The most powerful (does not mean the best) according to Antutu are the following models:

1. OnePlus 5 (181047 points)
2. HTC U11 (177501 points)
3. nubia Z17 (175779 points)
4. Nokia 8 (175335 points)
5. Xiaomi Mi MIX 2 (175162 points)

These phones are equipped with Snapdragon 835 chipsets - they show the best performance results. But high power is one of the selection criteria.