Trusted Reviews is supported by its audience. If you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a commission. Learn more.

Better battery life for smartphones of 2016? “An absolute yes,” says Qualcomm

Battery life is a sticking point for smartphone manufacturers worldwide, but Qualcomm says it’s making leaps in the field.

According to the US chipmaker, the upcoming Snapdragon 820 mobile chipset offers significant performance improvements compared to its predecessor.

Speaking at the New York launch event for the new chipset, Qualcomm’s Tim McDonough, vice-president of product marketing, said: “Do I get better battery life with the 820? And the answer is an absolute yes.”

According to McDonough, the Snapdragon 820 uses 30% less power than the Snapdragon 810.

It also helps answer one of the burning questions about the Snapdragon 820: will the smartphone chip suffer from overheating issues?

After all, the Snapdragon 810 was plagued by complaints over rumoured thermal inefficiency.

Related: Best Android Smartphones 2015

But according to Qualcomm, efficiency improvements with the Snapdragon 820 mean we won’t see a repeat of last year.

“Heat is the result of wasted power,” McDonough explains. “So the Snapdragon 820 is also more efficient and cooler than previous processors.”

That’s good news, since there have already been reports that the Snapdragon 820 may suffer from heat issues, with Samsung allegedly working to fix the problem ahead of the release of the Samsung Galaxy S7 next year.

Were you put off certain handsets as a result of complaints over the Snapdragon 810? Let us know in the comments.

Check out our smartphone buyer’s video guide below:

Why trust our journalism?

Founded in 2003, Trusted Reviews exists to give our readers thorough, unbiased and independent advice on what to buy.

Today, we have millions of users a month from around the world, and assess more than 1,000 products a year.

author icon

Editorial independence

Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.

author icon

Professional conduct

We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.

Trusted Reviews Logo

Sign up to our newsletter

Get the best of Trusted Reviews delivered right to your inbox.

This is a test error message with some extra words