Newsletter 
We have very recently seen the official unveiling of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 System-on-Chip, featuring Qualcomm’s new generation, custom designed, 64-bit application processor core called Kyro and a newer generation, higher performance Adreno graphics processor unit. Although Qualcomm have not disclosed what customers have signed up for the Snapdragon, and there remains much conjecture over what big name manufacturers have bought the chipset, there are a number of companies that are traditional Qualcomm customers and who have, year after year, put a Qualcomm Snapdragon at the heart of their flagship devices. Two of these businesses are HTC and Sony, where we would expect the next flagship smartphones from these manufacturers to proudly be powered by the 820.
In the case of Sony, here the manufacturer has tended to release flagship devices every six months and today we have seen the first rumor claiming to have details of the next Xperia Z flagship device, purported to be the Z6. In an unimaginative rumor, the Xperia Z6 is set to be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 equipped with 4 GB of RAM. There is no evidence to substantiate this claim and whilst it would be a fair bet – as Sony have used Qualcomm’s flagship chipset at the time in all of their Xperia Z flagship devices – it appears that this rumor has circumstantial evidence at best. The story continues claiming that the Z6 will have a 1080p resolution display, that is, FHD (full high definition) and an “outstanding camera.” It is also set to run Android 6.0 Marshmallow, which would be a sure fire bet for any flagship device released in the coming few months. The story does not detail if Sony will release a Z6 Compact model, which if similar to Sony’s current practice, will result in a device offering a 720p resolution, smaller screen and battery, but otherwise very similar hardware. The story also did not detail the potential for a Z6 Premium, using an even higher resolution display. Unfortunately, at this juncture there is simply no additional evidence to support this rumor. Perhaps in the coming weeks and months additional reports will come through.