Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro

Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 MSM8996 is a high-end ARM-based SoC largely found on Android tablets and smartphones. Announced in December 2015, the S820 is the successor to the Snapdragon 810 and should start shipping in the first half of 2016. In addition to 4 CPU cores (two slower clocked and two faster clocked Kryo cores), the SoC integrates an Adreno 530 GPU with a LPDDR4 memory controller  and supports Wi-Fi (802.11ad + MIMO), Bluetooth 4.1, and LTE.

CPU

The Snapdragon 820 is based on a similar concept as ARM's big.LITTLE, which combines a low power CPU cluster (2x Kyro clocked at up to 1.6 GHz) and a performance CPU cluster (2x Kyro clocked at up to 2.15 GHz). The clock speed of each cluster can be individually adjusted (but not per core) and the lowest clock speed is 310 MHz. The performance cluster features 1.5 MB L2 cache and the power saving one 512 KB. Both should be using the same architecture and fully support the ARMv8-ISA instruction set.

Although only four cores are used, the performance of the 820 is located in the high end of mobile CPUs for smartphones and tablets.

GPU

The Adreno 530 outperforms the previous Adreno 430 especially in high demanding benchmarks. Therefore it is well suited of modern 3D games on Android devices and should rank slightly below the Tegra X1 GPU.

Features

The Snapdragon 820 offers numerous wireless technologies such as Bluetooth 4.1, WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad (60 GHz) + MIMO as well as a dual-SIM cellular modem supporting LTE cat. 12/13 .

The SoC can encode and decode 4K videos using dedicated hardware (H.264 and H.265).

Power Consumption

Thanks to the new 14 nm process, the energy efficiency has been improved noticeably compared to its 20 nm predecessors.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 695 5G (SD695) is a fast mid-range ARM-based SoC largely found on Android tablets and smartphones. It features 8 Kryo 660 called cores (64-Bit capable) that are divided in two clusters. A fast cluster of two cores with up to 2.2 GHz based on the ARM Cortex-A77 design. And a power saving efficiency cluster with up to 1.7 GHz based on much smaller ARM Cortex-A55 cores. Both clusters can also used together.

In addition to the 8 CPU cores, the SoC integrates a lower mid range Adreno 619 GPU, a X51 5G radio (up to 2.5 Gbits download, no mmWave), a 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5, 8x8 sounding, Dual Band, 2x2), a Bluetooth 5.2 radio, satellite positioning (GPS, QZSS, GLONASS, SBAS, Beidou and Galileo) and a video engine (support for H.265, H.264, VP8 and VP9).

Compared to the previous SD690, the SD695 is now manufactured in 6nm (instead of 8nm) and offers a higher clocked performance cluster. However, the SD695 only supports Wi-Fi 5 instead of Wi-Fi 6 of the SD690.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 Pro

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 MSM8996 is a high-end ARM-based SoC largely found on Android tablets and smartphones. Announced in mid 2016, the S820 is the successor to the Snapdragon 820 and from a technical perspective a higher clocked version of the SoC. In addition to 4 CPU cores (two slower clocked and two faster clocked Kryo cores), the SoC integrates an Adreno 530 GPU with a LPDDR4 memory controller  and supports Wi-Fi (802.11ad + MIMO), Bluetooth 4.1, and LTE.

CPU

The Snapdragon 821 is based on a similar concept as ARM's big.LITTLE, which combines a low power CPU cluster (2x Kyro clocked at up to 1.6 GHz?) and a performance CPU cluster (2x Kyro clocked at up to 2.4 GHz). The clock speed of each cluster can be individually adjusted (but not per core) and the lowest clock speed is 310 MHz. The performance cluster features 1.5 MB L2 cache and the power saving one 512 KB. Both should be using the same architecture and fully support the ARMv8-ISA instruction set.

Although only four cores are used, the performance of the 821 is located in the high end of mobile CPUs for smartphones and tablets. The performance advantage of the 821 compared to the 820 depends on the used clock speed. E.g. in the Google Pixel, the SoC is only clocked at 2.15 GHz and therefore identical to many 820 SoCs.

GPU

The Adreno 530 outperforms the previous Adreno 430 especially in high demanding benchmarks. Therefore it is well suited of modern 3D games on Android devices and should rank slightly below the Tegra X1 GPU. Compared to the 530 in the 820, the 821 version should be up to 5 % faster, which speaks for a slightly higher clock speed.

Features

The Snapdragon 821 offers numerous wireless technologies such as Bluetooth 4.1, WLAN 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ad (60 GHz) + MIMO as well as a dual-SIM cellular modem supporting LTE cat. 12/13 .

The SoC can encode and decode 4K videos using dedicated hardware (H.264 and H.265).

Power Consumption

Thanks to the new 14 nm process, the energy efficiency has been improved noticeably compared to its 20 nm predecessors.