Microsoft, Qualcomm Confirm New Lumia Smartphones With Snapdragon 810 For 2015

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processor has a found a home in a number of smartphones that we’ve discussed over the past few months including the LG G Flex 2 and the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro. However, the Snapdragon 810 has also been dogged by reports of overheating, the first of such reports started airing in late 2014. More recently, Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S6 has been the subject of much speculation with regards to its use of the Snapdragon 810. Some reports have suggested that the flagship smartphone will use a revised version of the chip that produces less heat, while Qualcomm’s most recent earnings report seems to suggest that Samsung has passed over the Snapdragon 810 in favor of its homegrown Exynos processors.

Whatever the outcome with the Snapdragon 810 and Galaxy S6, Qualcomm is touting the benefits of the processor and is proudly showcasing its design wins. The company brought out quotes from LG and Motorola executives (among others) to show strong support for the Snapdragon 810. “With an advanced feature set and stunning multimedia support, the Snapdragon 810 provides us with a tremendous foundation to enable the most advanced mobile experiences for consumers,” said LG Electronics marketing VP Chris Yie. "The Snapdragon 810 processor will enable us to push the boundaries even further so we can continue delighting our customers with devices that give them new choices,” added Motorola Mobility president Rick Osterloh.

These canned responses are par for the course with new product introductions, but the biggest nugget of information contained in Qualcomm’s latest press release relates to Microsoft. Microsoft has been blanketing the low-end sector of the smartphone market with two-year old, $20 Lumia 520s and has even wave after wave of new low-end and mid-range smartphones. But a new flagship offering has been elusive… until now.

Microsoft has a new flagship smartphone in the works and it will be powered by a Snapdragon 810 processor. “Microsoft and Qualcomm’s long standing collaboration has allowed the two companies to offer compelling business, imaging, and entertainment experiences with Lumia smartphones running on Windows Phone,” said Juha Kokkonen, general manager for portfolio and product management at Microsoft.

Microsoft's current "affordable flagship", the Lumia 830

“We look forward to continuing this relationship to deliver best in class Lumia smartphones, powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 processors, and offer an unprecedented combination of processing power, rich multimedia, high-performance graphics and wireless connectivity for our customers.”

The wording seems to suggest that there will be number of new smartphones that will employ the Snapdragon 810. Windows Phone fans should finally have high-end, current gen processing hardware to go with the powerful photo capabilities afforded with PureView camera system. The big question that remains is the timing of these smartphone releases. If they come sooner rather than later, the smartphones will still be running the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system. However, if the smartphones arrive in the latter half of 2015, they would likely become launching points for Windows 10.