Smartphone buyers are now smarter than they’ve ever been before. Buyers will now know what processor, how much RAM, and almost every other spec bit there is to know about a device.
This makes it imperative for smartphone manufacturers to stay on top of their game and come out with the latest technology. Very often, this means releasing a smartphone with the newest processor — before any other phone maker gets to do the same. And it is a loop that never ends.
The smartphone market is, you can say, at the starting point of that loop right now. Qualcomm is set to announce the Snapdragon 820, and manufacturers, in turn, are waiting to leap on to the SoC and announce a phone of their own.
Previously leaked photo of an alleged Xiaomi Mi 5
At least five manufacturers — Xiaomi, Samsung, Vivo, Letv, OPPO — seem to be in the mood to be among the first ones to have a Snapdragon 820 phone of their own.
Gizchina News of the week
Xiaomi’s Mi 5 seems closer to a launch than any of the other phones from the respective brands… but there could be a twist with OPPO finally putting together a Snapdragon 820-powered Find 9. Samsung’s Galaxy S7 will most certainly have an SD820 in at least one of the many variants, while Letv has extensively teased a Snapdragon 820 phone (in fact, they started much before anyone else).
OPPO have a knack of having a ‘firsts’ record; the Find 5 was the world’s first 1080p phone, while the Find 7 was the first 2K display smartphone.
Have Your Say
Who do you think will be the first to release a Snapdragon 820 phone? Xiaomi seems the most likely to us with the Mi 5 due for a launch in the coming months, that is unless OPPO decide to pull off something special before that.
Question should be will I be able to afford a snapdragon 820 phone ? Answer probably not!
Depends what your budget is and what phones you like. Smartphone prices have been pretty consistent for the last few years, it doesn’t change much because of new technology. SD820 phones will be from around $330 for a Xiaomi Mi5 to $700 for an Oppo Find 9.
$330 would be good for me..provided Mi5 gets a dual SIM and a really good camera.
Dual sim maybe, maybe not you never know these days with dual sim. Really good camera it will have.
Can’t wait to see what Vivo does with the sd820. Xshot and xplay models here I come.
It though “could have a hybrid slot” then I remembered the Mi 5 is in the Mi lineup so no.pe(no hope).
why would Oppo sell their Find 9 $700 since they sold their Find 5 and 7 at the right price ($450) ?
Not in my country, in my country the cheapest you could find the Find 7 for was around $649. In India it launched for around $600. It really depends on where you live. Even in China the launch price was 2998 yuan, which today would be $461, in 2014 when it launched and the Yuan wasn’t as weak it was $483 US.