Surface Phone will have SnapDragon 830?

[to_be_announced]

Found this article concerning the possibility of the Surface Phone having the Snapdragon 830 chipset. Thought it was worth sharing.

Surface Phone Leak Promises Powerful New Windows 10 Smartphone

 

[xandros9]

Its an interesting notion considering expectations of an x86 chip under the hood of a Surface Phone.

 

[Vittorio Vaselli]

99% ARM
1% x86/x64

I think intel wants to enter in smartphone market due to declining pc market, but NOW as far as we know they don't have a SOC can manage a smartphone efficiently.

 

[TheLumaniac]

A good choice (in my opinion). Battery friendly (since that's Qualcomm's main focus) and enough power to easily handle Continuum.

 

[dkediger]

Well, it sure won't be Intel, for the time being, unless they have a super stealth project in the works:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/10288/intel-broxton-sofia-smartphone-socs-cancelled

Posted via the Windows Central App for Android

 

[skydiverian]

Well, it sure won't be Intel, for the time being, unless they have a super stealth project in the works:

Intel's Changing Future: Smartphone SoCs Broxton & SoFIA Officially Cancelled

Just read that article. It's big news and pretty much kills any suggestion that a surface phone will have an intel SOC, which was my general takeaway of the surface phone project until I first saw the suggestions that the next Qualcomm SOC would be used. Makes me happier in buying the Lumia 950 for the next couple of years but also raises the question of whether the surface phone will actually be as big a reboot of Microsoft's in-house product line as was initially suggested.

 

[startac7868]

Now it's up to Microsoft to make a unified Windows OS supporting ARM processors. That way, it doesn't require Intel x86 to run "desktop" software.

Or is that too much to ask?

Update: Question is particularly relevant since MS Surface uses Atom, e.g. Surface 3 that uses Atom X-7 which was to have been superceded by the now cancelled Broxton, as result of Intel departing from the mobile market last month. What will MS do now for their Surface line? That has deep implications for any Surface Phone? It goes back to my original premise of "full" Windows for ARM.

 

[xandros9]

Now it's up to Microsoft to make a unified Windows OS supporting ARM processors. That way, it doesn't require Intel x86 to run "desktop" software.

Or is that too much to ask?

Update: Question is particularly relevant since MS Surface uses Atom, e.g. Surface 3 that uses Atom X-7 which was to have been superceded by the now cancelled Broxton, as result of Intel departing from the mobile market last month. What will MS do now for their Surface line? That has deep implications for any Surface Phone? It goes back to my original premise of "full" Windows for ARM.

1. It's not Windows that needs the ARM support (it already works) its that the "Desktop" software has not been recompiled or otherwise modded to run on ARM.

Windows RT 8.x ran all the standard core Windows system stuff on ARM but MS can't really touch the vast library of third-party applications.

2. Maybe use the Core M lineup?

 

[rory753]

if the next smaller surface device comes out, I bet it'll be arm. and i'm going to go out and say it'll be a NVidia arm processor, not QUALCOMM. msft just has a history of working with NVidia, not QUALCOMM. also, I really hope that between now and then the new xbox mini is a arm based unit, and not a x86 based unit. that way, any of the consumer/ entertainment stuff written for it it will transfer easily over to the new arm surface.

 

[trha]

Now I'm starting to wander what will make Surface Phone really stand out? Or I'll just be a renamed Lumia 960?

 

[Vittorio Vaselli]

I'm pretty sure windows ink support, materials and kickstand.
Also i think is not enough for stand out and so i hope for something really new...
Pretouch, physical keyboard or double screen using hinge(like surfacebook), eye control, flexible screen, integrated/module projector(for continuum), a dumb tablet in which you can insert the phone like asus padphone, cover with second screen, something related to windows holographic, some way to run win32 apps through cloud or emulator.
I know these things are very unlikely(some are only my hope, some come from rumors and Microsoft research videos) but they NEED to do something really different for gain market share.
I hope they will surprise us!

 

[JDHamilton6]

... a dumb tablet in which you can insert the phone like asus padphone ...

I like this. Only rather than insert the phone go wireless through miracast. Inserting the phone would make it too thick.

 

[Vittorio Vaselli]

the problem going wireless is the latency and the battery drain...connecting directly (cable or inserting in) the tablet can have a big battery for charging the phone!

 

[rory753]

the problem going wireless is the latency...

the problem at the moment. hopefully somewhere between radio improvement and miracast improvement i can use a 10" dumb tablet from my phone...

 

[JDHamilton6]

the problem going wireless is the latency and the battery drain...connecting directly (cable or inserting in) the tablet can have a big battery for charging the phone!

I use the screen beam mini 2 continuum and don't really notice a lot of lag or battery drain. But I'm not pushing it much, either. Mainly on the living room TV for Netflix. Perhaps I'd see more if I drove it harder.

But, I could live with a cable. I really like the charge the phone part.

 

[Vittorio Vaselli]

i use Microsoft wireless display for continuum and the lag is there...but i think that plug the cable should be better since the tablet can have a lot of battery for recharging your phone.

 

[Wilhelm Alger]

Personally if the Surface Phone came out on both GSM and CDMA I think It'd be a big selling point. Especially for businesses.

~TERMINATOR461997

 

[ShinraCorp]

Honestly Intel Atom x7 series proved to be OK in battery draining if the Surface 3 tests were shown correctly. Sure the Surface 3 has a bigger battery but it also has a bigger screen.

I think a Core M would be worse in terms of pricing and battery draining. Just going through ARK Intel shows this:

Intel? Atom? x7-Z8750 Processor (2M Cache, up to 2.56 GHz) Specifications the price for an x7-z8750 is around 75-100$ compare to say the Core M3

Intel? Core? m3-7Y30 Processor (4M Cache, 2.60 GHz ) Specifications

While the suggested retail price doesn't show on either, I've checked with Mouser and the X7 one is around 54$ USD

http://ca.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...OUZO1TdTlbE6TBVPDmO4py/v12Ut2wVogJV8smk0FMg==

While the Core M (not the 7Y30) costs around 550$... which is 10x more... that's a lot... for just a SoC.

http://ca.mouser.com/ProductDetail/...OUZO1TdTlbOTw0Ifz/fEkHXjfZaohhql6JVdeMnwXzA==

 

[rory753]

I'm not sure what this is in response to. Intel has a few things to work out prior to becoming competitive with snapdragon. price is one thing, but then they have to also be competitive on the radio and gpu, among other things. Qualcomm has basically a monopoly on the communication standards for mobile devices. i can only say based on personal experience, but it also appears qualcomm is ahead from the mobile gpu perspective as well. I think mobile systems are going be built better on arm architecture then x86, and I think a surface phone should use arm of some form rather then x86, since it would be a better architecture.

 

[ShinraCorp]

I'm not sure what this is in response to. Intel has a few things to work out prior to becoming competitive with snapdragon. price is one thing, but then they have to also be competitive on the radio and gpu, among other things. Qualcomm has basically a monopoly on the communication standards for mobile devices. i can only say based on personal experience, but it also appears qualcomm is ahead from the mobile gpu perspective as well. I think mobile systems are going be built better on arm architecture then x86, and I think a surface phone should use arm of some form rather then x86, since it would be a better architecture.

In terms of communication standards Intel and Qualcomm are pretty even, if they weren't that's fine. You can have a Qualcomm modem to an x86, it'll just be two seperate chips.

Now in terms of GPU this one is tricky, Intel kind of screwed the pooch on that one big time with the X7-Z8700 there's a GPU bug in there that if I remember right from reading the datasheet has an issue with texturing polygons properly and required the Z8750 to fix that issue (and increase the amount of execution cores from 12 to 16.) Technically in terms of raw GPU power the Tegra X1 is the top contender for the mobile smartphone/tablet part. I haven't developed games for mobile yet (not sure if I ever will to be honest) So I can't really benchmark them or anything.

Honestly we can say all we want but at the end of the day only Microsoft knows.

If they want to stand out I don't think having a Snapdragon would help out...