14 DAY TRIAL // US chip maker Qualcomm is in big trouble. Albeit supplying chips to the majority of OEMs producing mobile devices today, Qualcomm’s business is on shaky grounds.
The company has just announced that major structural reforms will be taking place inside the company, in the hopes of reducing spending by approximately $1.4 / €1.27 billion.
The silicon producer will be forced to lay off about 4,500 employees, meaning 15% of its entire workforce, which is currently made up of 31,000 full-time and temporary employees.
The troubles started for Qualcomm when low-cost chipmakers like MediaTek made an appearance on the scene. Then came the whole Snapdragon 810 fiasco which truly marked the start of the downfall for the company.
The thing is the Snapdragon 810 will probably go down in history as Qualcomm’s most notable failure. Even before the chipset rolled out into the wild, we’ve been hearing rumors that it was plagued by overheating issues, rumors which Qualcomm officials violently dismissed at some point, calling them “rubbish.”
Something is clearly wrong with the Snapdragon 810
However, the negative reports didn’t go away. Then Samsung announced it would not be utilizing the Snapdragon 810 processor inside its Galaxy S6 flagships, so with that, Qualcomm lost a major contract.
LG rolled out the G Flex 2 with a Snapdragon 810 on the inside, but for its flagship G4, the company chose the safer way and used the less powerful Snapdragon 808.
Nevertheless, some manufactures, most notably Sony and HTC, decided to give the Snapdragon 810 a chace (or its revised version, which supposedly cures overheating issues but, as it was proved, actually doesn’t).
HTC used the ill-fated processor for its One M9 and Sony embedded it into its current international Xperia Z3+ version. What do the two phones have in common? They aren’t selling like they should.
Shortly after both models made their way into the wild, we started hearing reports that they were suffering from overheating issues. Which was something to be expected.
Couple this problems with the fact that HTC and Sony haven’t really improved their current lineup when it comes to their predecessors, and it’s pretty clear why the two top-tier phones are considered a fiasco.
In Japan, things escalated to a point where local carrier DoCoMo decided it was a good idea to put up warning signs for the Sharp Aquos Zeta, Fujitsu Arrows NX and Sony Xpera Z4 (the Japanese version of the Xperia Z3+) in a shop located in Tokyo, alerting users to take into consideration the overheating issues of the Snapdragon 810 and follow a set of instructions in order to be on the safe side of things.
For now, it's best to stay clear of the Snapdragon 810
So the Snapdragon 810 is far from being the flagship chipset of the year, as everyone was anticipating. What’s more, rumors that the next-gen Snapdragon 820 will behave in a similar fashion have already appeared on the net, even if such a scenario is pretty unlikely to happen.
This is because the Snapdragon 810 uses stock ARM cores, while the Snapdragon 820 should utilize Qualcomm’s own custom cores dubbed Kyro.
The first smartphone expected to take advantage of the platform is the Xiaomi Mi 5 Pro, so you might want to wait for it.
The Snapdragon 820 is expected to start shipping out in December 2015, so until then, you are better off staying away from Snapdragon 810-powered devices.
Up and rising device manufacturer OnePlus is gearing up to launch its next-gen flagship device called the OnePlus 2, a smartphone which will also make use of the Snapdragon 810 platform.
OnePlus swears their handset won’t overheat, but recent leaked benchmarks showed that, in order to prevent this from happening, the company might ship the phone out with a throttled processor.
So at this point, if you want to purchase a high-end device, we suggest you look in the direction of the Snapdragon 808. On the other hand, Samsung’s Exynos 7420 platform seems to be doing a good job at sustaining life on board the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge, so you might want to look into that as well.
Moreover, HTC is also shipping its One M9+ with an octa-core Helio X10 processor (MT6795T), so there are plenty of available options on the market.