Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 835 back in November and back then we were told to expect the first devices with the new top-tier SoC to hit the market sometime in the first half of 2017.
However recent reports recently revealed that yields of 10nm chips are lower than expected and this might cause smartphone manufacturers to delay their flagship products to late in the second quarter, perhaps even later.
Still we expect a few smartphones bundling the Snapdragon 835 will be making an appearance on the market quite soon. Below you’ll find the phones that are expected (so far) to take advantage of the new high-end chipset. And as the Snapdragon 835 becomes more widely available further along in 2017, the ranks of premium smartphones bundling the platform will surely increase.
Samsung Galaxy S8
Status: Soon to be announced
Since the 10nm FinFet chipset is made by Samsung, the Korean tech giant has made sure to reserve a sufficient supply for its Galaxy S8 beast. The phone maker is expected to pull the wraps off the Galaxy S8 on March 29. The phone should then become available for pre-order on April 10, with in-store availability being scheduled for the mid-to-late April. So as soon as next month, we might be able to see the Snapdragon 835 in action in the wild. Fingers crossed!
Sony Xperia XZ Premium
Status: Announced
Sony announced the powerful Xperia XZ Premium at MWC 2017, so the Japanese company gets credit for announcing a Snapdragon 835-powered phone before Samsung had a chance to. The phone also packs a 4K display and 4GB of RAM onboard. Sony says it will release the device in Spring 2017, so we have until May to see that happen. So the Galaxy S8 might make it to retail before the Xperia XZ Premium after all.
ZTE Gigabit Phone
Status: Announced
Another phone with Snapdragon 835 that was announced at MWC 2017 is the ZTE Gigabit Phone – the first capable of achieving downloads speeds of up to 1Gbps. Surely this model won’t be available for purchase for quite some time, but we thought we’d mention the device anyway. The Chinese device maker calls it “a forward-looking 5super Generation smartphone” to hint the Gigabit Phone is paving the way to the 5G era.
Xiaomi Mi6
Status: soon to be announced
Xiaomi is expected to launch its new flagship, the Mi6 reportedly on April 16. The phone should become available with a 5.2-inch LCD display with 2.5D glass and a ceramic variant. It will be offered either with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage or 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internals storage. We don’t know when exactly Xiaomi will start shipping the phone to buyers, but we can hope it will be in users’ hands by the end of April.
OnePlus 5
Status: Rumored
The first rumors about the OnePlus 5 have started making rounds a few months ago and we expect the phone to come boasting a Snapdragon 835 as well. Given that the OnePlus 3 was launched in June 2016, we can speculate the OnePlus 5 will make it out this summer. However, it remains if enough Snapdragon 835 yields will be available during the period. If supplies remain scarce, OnePlus will probably have to wait or go for an older processor (like LG which launched the LG G6 with the Snapdragon 821 onboard).
HTC 11
Status: Confirmed
HTC launched the HTC U Ultra flagship before the end of 2016. And like the LG G6, the HTC U Ultra takes advantage of the Snapdragon 821 under the hood. But a HTC official confirmed that when the Snapdragon 835 is going to become widely available the company will surely be among the first Android OEMs to offer such a product.
He was probably referring to the HTC 11 which according to the rumor mill will come boasting 8GB of RAM/256GB of native storage and a 5.5-inch display with QHD resolution. If word on the street is correct, HTC and Verizon have already started testing a Snapdragon 835-powered phone, so we might see it make an appearance sometimes in Q3?
ZTE Hawkeye
Status: Confirmed (almost)
ZTE’s Hawkeye experiment proved to be a no-go when the community realized the company is planning to offer the phone with middle-range specs including a FHD display and Snapdragon 625 onboard.
Now ZTE has acknowledged its failure to communicate effectively with the community and has pledged to making things up. To this end, the company is willing to bring a Snapdragon 835 onboard its eye-tracking, self-adhesive smartphone. However, we don’t have a 100% confirmation this will indeed be the case, but if ZTE wants to salvage the product it will probably have to bring Qualcomm’s latest and greatest into the equation
Motorola Moto Z / Moto X (2017)
Status: Rumored
A few months ago an unidentified Moto smartphone with Snapdragon 835 onboard was spotted in Geekbench. We don’t know if it’s a new Moto Z or the purported Moto X (2017) which leaked in images a while ago, but by the looks of it we’re going to see a Snapdragon 835-powered smartphone in 2017 – hopefully sooner rather than later. The current Moto Z launched in September 2016, so it might take a while before this phone will made an appearance on the market.
Nokia P(1)
Status: Rumored
At CES 2017, a purported Nokia high-end prototype running the Snapdragon 835 showed up. So back then we hypothesized the premium phone will make an appearance at MWC 2017. But that didn’t happen. So a Nokia flagship with Snapdragon 835 might be only a dream at this point.
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