Qualcomm may not be the only chipset maker in the mobile industry today but it’s certainly one of the more controversial yet reliable ones. Earlier this year, the brand was ditched by Samsung in favor of its own Exynos because of overheating problems. However, the South Korean tech giant has not totally stopped since some Galaxy models still use Snapdragon.
For next year’s Galaxy lineup, Samsung is still believed to be using an Exynos but there are other rumors that say a Snapdragon variant will also be released. We’re not sure how that will go but we can say that Qualcomm has been working hard to improved on its processors.
The next-gen Snapdragon chips are believed to have been built on Samsung foundries. Even before the new Snapdragon 617 and 430 processors were introduced, we already knew of the tech’s hybrid auto focus feature. That’s mainly for mobile photography to be enhanced and with the release of the Snapdragon 820, we can expect the chipset to be more powerful than ever especially when it comes to imaging.
The success of smartphone cameras doesn’t always depend on the number of megapixels or what kind of sensor is used. It’s also not about having more flash or light. A good mobile camera is a combination of hardware and software while great photos are a result of a photographer’s skills, talents, and eye for details.
One of the more overlooked features in a smartphone is how the camera works in low light conditions. Additional light may help with some editing skills but Qualcomm managed to improved on the technology by making the Snapdragon processors more powerful than ever. Some of the latest phones that work good under such conditions all run Snapdragon chips. The OnePlus 2, LG G4, Nexus 5X, and Nexus 6P are all powered by Qualcomm.
How is it possible? The new Snapdragon processors feature built-in noise-reduction technologies with a fast image signal processor (ISP). They worked hard on processing an image for a crisp and grain-free photo result all the time especially for low-light videos and images.
As described, the Snapdragon processors make use of state-of-the-art algorithms, temporal noise reduction (TNR), fast ISP, wavelet noise reduction (WNR), as well as, local tone mapping (LTM) to brighten areas in an image and as required. This development will definitely benefit the phone makers since the Snapdragon can now be trusted more in low light photography.
SOURCE: Qualcomm
