Tom's Hardware's AMA With Qualcomm, In Its Entirety

Benchmarking And SoC Components

After being live for a full 24 hours, the Qualcomm  “Ask Me Anything” has officially concluded!

Epic thanks to the Qualcomm representatives who took the time out of their schedules to come and answer all the great questions our community had for them. We know this was a lot of work on their end, and we're greatly appreciative of the time taken to engage with the community here at Tom's Hardware. :)

For answering so many questions, a big thank-you goes out to Peter Carson, Dan Novak, and Michelle Leyden Li for the quick responses. Also, last but not least, a mega-thanks to Yelena Durmashkin at Qualcomm for helping put this together, securing time on each representative's end and securing the time and info required to make this happen.

Q. Why do you advertise Snapdragon to consumers? It's not like we can replace our phone's current SoC :-) You believe people will base a purchase decision on the brand of SoC it uses?

A. People are getting smarter about their technologies and we want to help them when they're making a decision about what to buy. Consumers can have an enhanced user experience by paying attention to the processor in their mobile device – this controls the performance and quality of the content users enjoy. Choosing a smartphone or tablet powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor when they're ready to get a new phone ensures the device will deliver the best mobile computing experience without comprising battery life.

Q. When will we see the first Snapdragon 800-based devices?

A. The first Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 device has already launched in korea with Samsung. You will start to see more Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 devices this summer. LG and Sony have recently announced devices based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processors, so keep an eye out for those.

Q. There’s so much focus right now on the processor performance of mobile SoCs. What other components does Qualcomm believe deserve more attention?

A. Of the mobile SOCs, the CPU accounts for about 15%. Unlike some of our competitors who focus on a single technology component, Qualcomm leads across all key technology components: CPU, GPU, DSP, Modem, Audio, Video, etc. This complete approach is required to deliver the performance consumers expect within the tight design challenges of a mobile device.  All these components of the processor are also driving user experiences such as 4k UHD, 7.1 surround sound, dual image signal processors. A key component is the integrated modem - the world's first that supports LTE Advanced Carrier Aggregation, which improves LTE user experience with up to a doubling of data speeds.