It is widely believed that Google’s upcoming Pixel smartphones will be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 chipset. Given that the Snapdragon 820 is pretty much the de facto chipset of choice for high-end smartphones in 2016, we guess we can’t say we’re surprised. In fact anything less would be surprising.
However what if we could expect more? According to a tweet by Android Police’s David Ruddock, he has revealed that Google’s upcoming Pixel phones could be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 chipset versus the Snapdragon 820. Now there are several phones in the market powered by the Snapdragon 821, but Ruddock claims that the Pixel phones could be the first phones in the US to be powered by the chipset.
Ruddock also notes that Qualcomm is apparently charging quite a lot for the Snapdragon 821, which is why there aren’t that many OEMs who have hopped on board the bandwagon just yet, but given Google’s resources we reckon that this should not be an issue. We’re not sure how big of a performance gain the Snapdragon 821 has over the Snapdragon 820, but unless you’re a power user there’s a good chance that in your day-to-day usage of the phone, you might not really be able to tell.
In any case it’s best taken with a grain of salt for now, but Google is rumored to unveil their new phones on the 4th of October, so check back with us in the coming weeks for the details.
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