Qualcomm today is announcing the Snapdragon 850 Mobile Compute Platform skipping the current Snapdragon 845 built for smartphones. The new Snapdragon 850 brings a host of new features designed around the Windows 10 operating system and made for smaller computing devices – and not just PCs. While the Snapdragon 835 found currently in the HP Envy x2, Lenovo Miix 630, and Asus NovaGo is seen as a first attempt at Windows 10 on ARM, the Snapdragon 850 is the first chip built specifically for Windows 10 devices making it a significant advancement.

Snapdragon 850 – What's new The Snapdragon 850 brings an advancement over the current Snapdragon 835 smartphone processor with higher clock speeds and more finely tuned core balancing for devices running Windows 10. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more Compared to the current Snapdragon 835 in Always Connected PCs the new Snapdragon 850 brings: 30 percent increase in performance.

20 percent increase in battery life and efficiency.

20 percent increase in Gigabit LTE speeds. That boost in performance and longevity is due to the new Hexagon 685 digital signal processor (DSP), Kyro 385 CPU, and new X20 LTE modem. The refreshed X20 modem can deliver theoretical speeds of up to 1.2Gbps versus the X16 modem in the current Snapdragon 835's 1.0Gbps max.

While many of the components in the new Snapdragon 850 are found in the Snapdragon 845, the 850's tends to be clocked higher and tuned for Windows 10 due to better thermal space, larger batteries, different drivers, and unique hardware. As such, we will never see a Snapdragon 850 in any smartphone. For instance, the Kyro 385 CPU is the same as found in the current Snapdragon 845, but instead of a 2.8GHz clock speed, it now goes up to 2.95GHz (the Snapdragon 835 was even lower at 2.6GHz). Additionally, the Snapdragon 850 brings support for Microsoft's Machine Learning SDK and artificial intelligence (A.I.) initiatives. As developers being to leverage A.I. in their apps, the Snapdragon will support them through direct hardware acceleration. Snapdragon 850 - Audio and visual boost too

The new Snapdragon 850 chipset also leans more heavily on entertainment. The new chip has support for the following advanced audio features with Qualcomm Aqstic and Qualcomm aptX audio, which features: Virtual surround sound.

Up to native Direct Stream Digital (DSD) format.

High-dynamic-range and ultra-low Total Harmonic Distortion plus Noise (THD+N).

aptX HD support. Qualcomm's Aqstic system works through a standard 3.5mm jack or more current USB Type-C ports. Another shift is in media creation. The Snapdragon 835 supported 4K playback, but now the Snapdragon 850 also allows for 4K UHD video capture. Finally, Qualcomm did confirm that the Snapdragon 850 will support secondary display output as well, which opens the door for multi-monitor scenarios. Welcome to the Mobile Compute Platform

Qualcomm is also making a subtle shift away from the previous 'Mobile PC Platform' with the Snapdragon 835 to the newer and more ambiguous 'Mobile Compute Platform' with the Snapdragon 850. While Qualcomm did not announce on behalf of any of its partners' new hardware the reasoning for the name shift is due to hardware manufacturers moving beyond traditional laptops and 2-in-1s, which we have seen thus far. Mobile Compute Platform is a flexible phrase that allows for more "innovative form factors" as Qualcomm calls it. While so far, we have seen 12-inch 2-in-1s there is no reason why Dell, HP, or Lenovo could not make smaller 8-inch devices, small devices with dual displays, or any other radical shift from what we know as a PC today. Snapdragon 850 hardware specifications There is a lot of nitty-gritty to the Snapdragon 850. Luckily, we have all of those specificaitons here too. Cellular Modem – Snapdragon X20 Peak Download Speed: 1.2 Gbps

Peak Upload Speed: 150 Mbps CPU – Kryo 385 CPU Clock Speed: Up to 2.96 GHz

CPU Cores: 8 x Kryo 385 CPU Adreno Subsystem – Adreno 630 Open GL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan, DirectX 12

Ultra HD Premium video playback and encoding @ 4K (3840x2160) 30fps

Slow motion HEVC video encoding of FHD (1080p) up to 120fps

H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), VP9, DisplayPort over USB Type-C support Camera – Spectra 280 New architecture for 14-bit image signal processing, with support for up to:

Single HFR 16 MPix camera at 60fps ZSL

Dual 16 MPix cameras at 30fps ZSL

Single 32 MPix camera at 30fps ZSL

Multi-frame Noise Reduction (MFNR) with accelerated image stabilization

Hybrid Autofocus with support for dual phase detection (2PD) sensors

Ultra HD Premium video capture @ 4K (3840x2160) 30fps Wi-Fi – 802.11ad Multi-gigabit Wi-Fi integrated 802.11ac 2x2 with MU-MIMO

2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 60 GHz Bluetooth – Bluetooth 5 Charging – Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ Availability Look for new devices running the Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 platform with Windows 10 in the second half of 2018. Analysis - Why this is a big deal

Ever since Microsoft and Qualcomm announced Windows 10 on ARM back in late 2016 questions remained about how it would work, and long-term commitment. Make no mistake the Snapdragon 850 is a modified Snapdragon 845 – it uses many of the same hardware bits. Internally, we heard the 850 was referred to as "Snapdragon 845s". But this is the first ARM chip designed and tuned specially for running Windows 10, versus being shoehorned in like the Snapdragon 835. The CPU is clocked higher, the cores are optimized for Windows 10's workload and OS structure, and the drivers now support all the features of the chipset (and vice versa). One example is hardware-accelerated A.I. support, which makes Microsoft's Machine Learning SDK much more interesting for developers. Advanced A.I.-assisted photo-editing, grammar checking, and smart assistants will be able to leverage this chipset directly opening many more opportunities. Whereas Qualcomm was touting "beyond all-day battery life," which proved very accurate in my HP Envy x2 review, the Snapdragon 850 now boasts "multi-day battery life."