HTC, Qualcomm confirm 64-bit Snapdragon 615 SoC in upcoming Desire 820

Just as rumoured, HTC is the first Android vendor to partner with Qualcomm fo the 64-bit Snapdragon 615 SoC, which will be used in the upcoming Desire 820 smartphone. Qualcomm had announced the 64-bit SoC earlier **in February this year** , but considering that official 64-bit support for Android will only come with the Android L release, the first devices were only expected towards the end of the year.   HTC teased the new smartphone in a post on Weibo, while Qualcomm also confirmed the development through a separate post on the same platform. While the Chinese language post did not reveal much in terms of specs, a large ‘64’ clearly shows the 64-bit support, and the announcement date has also been confirmed as September 4. Qualcomm’s post says ‘The first use of 64-bit from Qualcomm’ coming soon.   The Snapdragon 615 SoC **has an octa-core processor** , and **is expected to power mid-range smartphones** and tablets whereas the higher end Snapdragon 810 and 808 series CPUs will be seen in high-end smartphones which support 4G technology, later in the year and early in 2015. The 615 SoC uses ARM’s Cortex-A53 cores and will feature an Adreno 405 GPU. The new GPU is part of the Adreno 400 series which is currently reserved for the premium Snapdragon 800 SoCs. Both chipsets will feature global LTE bands supporting Category 4 data rates, Wi-Fi ‘ac’, NFC , GLONASS and the lot. These chipsets will target the upper mid-range phones sitting in the Rs 25,000 – Rs 35,000 price bracket.   The HTC Desire series is just the right kind of device class for the 615 SoC. The Desire 820 would ideally be a mid-range to high-end device in the vein of the HTC Desire 816 currently. Currently, HTC uses Mediatek’s octa-core for **the Desire 616.**