Why Microsoft is using old Snapdragon processors

[a5cent]

I'm not saying they are bad. They are great for what they need to run, I agree with you. I don't fall for the moar corez/moar clock speedz!

I know. I just felt your post was a good opportunity to provide more context.

 

[trivishal]

^ Apple's CPUs are actually really good too!

They just aren't soooo one-sided like the ones built into other "high-end" devices. Apple doesn't build their SoC to pander to enthusiasts via the spec sheet, but to provide what they deem to be the best balance between power usage and performance.

If consumers were actually tech savvy and could get past the simplistic best=biggest-core&clock rate-numbers, there would be an interesting discussion to be had over how (within a specific size and weight class) battery life factors into defining what is and what isn't high-end. That is rarely part of how people define "high-end", but I think Apple is right to balance both.

The only place Apple goes for "power, over efficiency" is the GPU, which IMHO provides the perfect combination of powerful vs power efficient SoC components. Apple is the only company with the luxury to design in this way, as everyone else is required to sell and market the specs consumers want, even if they end up leading to an overall poorer experience than what the iPhone offers.

What most enthusiasts completely miss, is that despite the way they look down on the iPhone's dual core 1.3GHz CPU, there is no game the iPhone can't run just as well or better than their specced-out Android devices.

That does make the whole specs-mania, as demonstrated by this thread, a bit comical, despite them admittedly being relevant from a marketing perspective.

On a side note: three years ago I predicted Apple would not be moving to quad-core CPUs anytime soon, partly due to the reasons mentioned above, which I think pretty much nobody believed at the time...

But, you know that Apple phones cost US $ 600+ and they use the latest SOC design and latest Semi conductor technology to manufacture their processors and definitely they have hell lot of money to make best hardware- software-apps optimization and their GPU are more than dual core.
For Qualcomm, it was a rushed move to take over OCTA CORE PROCESSORS IN ALL PRICE SEGMENTS OF SMARTPHONES SO THEY PRODUCED NON CUSTOMIZED PROCESSORS and these are Snapdragon 615 and 810 processors which overheat too much and constantly not a nice performer. To be in games, Qualcomm has now announced Quad core( 2 high power and 2 power efficient cores ) Snapdragon 820 processor that would be comparable with upcoming 1.5 GHz dual core Iphone processor

 

[Blacklac]

Snapdragon 820 processor that would be comparable with upcoming 1.5 GHz dual core Iphone processor

I would love to know how you know those are comparable. Lol

You think that A8 would run 1440p displays as well? The iPhone's resolution can't be ignored, here. Even after you consider how silly it is trying to compare different SoC's on different OS's using Apps coded differently. You can compare the phones overall package, but not SoC's directly.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[trivishal]

I would love to know how you know those are comparable. Lol

You think that A8 would run 1440p displays as well? The iPhone's resolution can't be ignored, here. Even after you consider how silly it is trying to compare different SoC's on different OS's using Apps coded differently. You can compare the phones overall package, but not SoC's directly.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Because you know as well, every tech geek guy compares only the highest end Android and Windows smartphones processors with the Iphone processors in different benchmarks for CPU and GPU performance in them.

 

[Pathum Wijayasooriya]

you absolutely right a5cent it's a business......
Many people in developing countries eg. south Asian countries like India ,Pakistan,bangladesh, shri lanka even doesn't know the fact that snapdragon 200 vs snapdragon 400 have differences.....in terms of gpu and video codec supports etc. They just know the fact that both have 1.2 ghz quad core....they only care about spec. Numbers and Microsoft targeting this low end market...and ms is noticeably popular here..

ehemmm.... dont wanna sound intimidating or sarcastic but i can vouch with certainty that most people in Sri Lanka are spec oriented with a decent knowledge of GPU models and supported video codecs and even to the extent of features such as sensor core and 4K video recording.
But as you say, WP is catching on as people do knw that the WP OS runs butter smooth even on low end hardware.. Unfortunately the marketing here is not "flashy" enough when compared with Droids' nor have most people broken free of the ridiculous notion that owning an iphone is a sign of wealth or poshness...

 

[a5cent]

But, you know that Apple phones cost US $ 600+ and they use the latest SOC design and latest Semi conductor technology to manufacture their processors and definitely they have hell lot of money to make best hardware- software-apps optimization and their GPU are more than dual core.
For Qualcomm, it was a rushed move to take over OCTA CORE PROCESSORS IN ALL PRICE SEGMENTS OF SMARTPHONES SO THEY PRODUCED NON CUSTOMIZED PROCESSORS and these are Snapdragon 615 and 810 processors which overheat too much and constantly not a nice performer. To be in games, Qualcomm has now announced Quad core( 2 high power and 2 power efficient cores ) Snapdragon 820 processor that would be comparable with upcoming 1.5 GHz dual core Iphone processor

IMHO this is nonsense interspersed with correct but irrelevant facts. I fail to see what point you're trying to make with it. Some people in this thread mentioned how, based on their analysis of the iPhone's core count and CPU clock rate, Apple apparently builds and sells a decidedly midrange smartphone.

My point was that the above represents a somewhat unsophisticated view of what constitutes "high-end". IMHO it can be argued that the iPhone's SoC is not any less of a "high-end" product. It was just engineered with a different (IMHO more balanced) set of (efficiency and performance related) goals in mind, and with a strong focus on being the most optimal hardware for the type of software it will eventually run (hence dual core), rather than caring about SoC and spec sheet marketability.

All of the above is a bit off-topic, as it only challenges people's view of what denotes "high end" hardware. It doesn't say anything about why Nokia often didn't use Qualcomm's latest SoC in their devices.

In regard to that question I think this thread is 90% poor speculation and therefore of very little value.

Money certainly has something to do with it, as that is what every business decision ultimately boils down to, but I doubt any of us have accurately guessed exactly how that factors in.

Something that so far hasn't been mentioned however, is that when Qualcomm releases a new SoC, they provide the Android drivers along with it! Qualcomm doesn't deliver Windows drivers, so MS must do that themselves. I don't know how much of a delay that causes, but it does mean that MS can never be ready on release day as Android OEMs are. That doesn't account for Nokia using the S800 over the S801 however, which is pretty much a drop in replacement.

 

[heickelrrx]

Ah you guys are all pain. Look not all people are tech geek like you guys.

I don't care whether my phone is single,dual,quad core as long as it's perform well fast and great battery life no one will complain.

Oh look Lumia using SD S4 which perform terrible on my android. Oh well lumia phone run fast unlike droid so? And they have great bettery life

 

[a5cent]

^ we know that, but many store reps do care, as do those friends and family members who are often asked to help with purchasing decisions. Those people are the most important marketing factor, and they need to be convinced.

When MS adopts a new SoC, they often do so with a delay of approximately six months compared to the Android OEMs. That does make it harder to convince those people. That is important. I don't think there is any doubt about that.

This thread just asks why that is, which nobody really knows with certainty.

 

[Blacklac]

I'll stir the rage. A SD820 device is rumored to be released Q4. Android of course.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[trivishal]

I'll stir the rage. A SD820 device is rumored to be released Q4. Android of course.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

Not only one Android device, the rumoured ones are Huawei Nexus 2015, LG G4 Pro, Sony Xperia Z5, a HTC device as well may be other devices too.

 

[Blacklac]

Not only one Android device, the rumoured ones are Huawei Nexus 2015, LG G4 Pro, Sony Xperia Z5, a HTC device as well may be other devices too.

Yeah, the Huawei Nexus was the only one I knew a rumored date for, and was before 2016. I'm assuming there will be tons of devices using it.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[Blacklac]

And according to HTC, basically every phone with an SD810 is using the magical 2.1v, so its nothing special. Like we should have all known, anyways.

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[peachy001]

Loads of 820 devices coming at the end of the year.

 

[Roland Schlangen]

People who do proper research before buying phones cares. It's not about what's enough, it's about future proofing the phones.

I disagree: The majority of people do not care about specs, they care about features, colors, design and the only spec which they do care about is the amount of megapixels of the camera. The few people who do research before buying care for processors, RAM, USB ports etc.are the minority.(I bet you disagree on this :wink Another thing is the OS. If the OS is crappy or not supporting features than the hardware can be state of the art but is useless. By the way: Future proof????? A phone ????? The future of an average phone is max 1.5 year!!!

To wrap it up: The majority of the targeted population will buy midrange phones. On the low side people buy the low end phones and on the high end side people buy the high end phones. A company targets always on the market where the margins are the highest. No exeption for phones / microsoft.
And. Using the latest available hardware will result in pricy phones and will sell only to the minority. Commercially not interesting....

 

[tgp]

People who do proper research before buying phones cares. It's not about what's enough, it's about future proofing the phones.

How many people do what we would call "proper research" before buying a phone? I'm pretty sure the answer would be "almost nobody". I do agree with you about future proofing though; better specs does have a place there.

The majority of people do not care about specs, they care about features, colors, design and the only spec which they do care about is the amount of megapixels of the camera.

I agree with you here. I sometimes shake my head and the reasoning behind advertising a phone's thickness, for example.

LOOK! 1mm thinner than before! There has never since the beginning of time been a smartphone thinner than this! Our engineers have been working night and day for the last decade, without sleep or food, only copious amounts of coffee, to design a smartphone thinner than the human hair! -Tim Cook

True, it makes it feel premium somehow, but what you sacrifice is battery more than anything else. I personally would rather have a few more millimeters in thickness and better battery life. But, it occurred to me that battery life means nothing when a customer is in the store handling devices, trying to decide which one to buy. All else being equal, they'll choose the thinner device. The effects of the battery life are not felt in the store; it comes later, after the purchase has been made.

In a nutshell, first impressions are very important. Not just in phones, but in almost everything in life, including friends. A great battery life does not factor in first impressions, but features, colors, design, and camera megapixels do.

 

[psudotechzealot]

Why Microsoft is using old snapdragon processor ( such as old snapdragon 200 instead of snapdragon 210 on lumia 540, old snapdragon 400 instead of new snapdragon 410 in Lumia 640) .