The upcoming 6-inch Nokia Lumia 1520 is expected to be announced next month and released in the US for November. While many points about the device have already come forward, it’s still nice to get some seemingly solid confirmation on specifics.
In this case, the official Qualcomm Twitter account responded to a Mika B. regarding the brand new Snapdragon 800 chipset. Mika simply noted “See you in Lumia 1520 with superior 20 Mpx Camera” to which Qualcomm surprisingly replied “You are correct – and we’re proud to be a part of that awesome device.”
Qualcomm seemingly confirms Snapdragon 800 for the Lumia 1520
That’s a pretty solid confirmation, if you ask us.
Then again, official Twitter accounts have known to be wrong many times, meaning until we see an actual spec sheet from Nokia, nothing is guaranteed.
Qualcomm's next gen chipset: Snapdragon 800
So what’s so great about the Snapdragon 800 chipset anyway? For one, the processor for the camera is improved as it now supports up to a 55 MP sensor with Stereoscopic 3D. It also packs a dual image signal processor to help render photos more quickly. Having said that, Nokia and Qualcomm have worked on a customized stack for the camera drivers on the Lumia 1020 and those optimizations will likely carry over to the Lumia 1520 as well.
Other techno mumbo-jumbo on the 800-series includes a 28nm HPm (“High Performance for mobile”) fabrication process, support for 4K video at 30 FPS and 2K video at 60 FPS. It also has a faster 2x32-bit 800MHz LPDDR3 memory and a new Quad Core Krait 400 CPU at speeds up to 2.3 GHz, per core. There is also Miracast support, something for which Windows 8.1 desktop and the Xbox One offer as well (and we bet Windows Phone 8.1 will too).
Finally, it also has support for DTS-HD, Dolby Digital Plus and 7.1 surround sound, which is kind of ridiculous.
Performance is supposed to up to 75% better than our current S4 chipsets.
Some caution - More unknowns than knowns
Of course, we should note that just because a chipset can support all of that doesn’t mean the Lumia 1520 will support all of those fancy technologies. Indeed, we have no idea what will and won’t be enabled, partially because we don’t know what Windows Phone 8 GDR3 does and does not support. That’s doubly so for the forthcoming Windows Phone 8.1, due early next year.
All we do know is that the Lumia 1520 will rock a 6-inch 1080P display. Will Windows Phone make use of the quad-core part? We’ll just have to wait to see.
Update 8:30 PM ET: Qualcomm/Snapdragon now say they misread the earlier Tweet, denying any knowledge of the Lumia 1520. Accurate or covering their tracks? You decide.
Windows Phone Central expects the Lumia 1520 to go on sale November 8th for AT&T for around $699 off-contract. It will come in four colors, including red, yellow, white and black. A global launch is expected to follow shortly after.
Source: Qualcomm / Snapdragon (Twitter); via PhoneSeven.de; Thanks, MBaumi, for the tip
