In short: More proof suggesting the successor to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 845 chip will be called the Snapdragon 8150 emerged, with AndroidHeadlines discovering two LinkedIn profiles of Qualcomm employees that explicitly reference the new moniker. While the silicon was initially rumored to be called the Snapdragon 855, the San Diego, California-based chipmaker appears to have opted to rebrand its lineup of ultra-premium chips, possibly to avoid confusing it with its notebook-designed silicon range introduced in June with the Snapdragon 850.
Background: This summer, German tech outlet WinFuture first reported on the “Snapdragon Mobile Platform 8150” moniker, claiming the chip is code-named “Hana” and is built on TSMC’s 7nm process node. The firm may also be planning to rebrand some of its other product ranges, with the same report mentioning the “SCX8180” as the name of the Snapdragon 850 successor, in addition to implying the Snapdragon 7150 and Snapdragon 7250 are also in the works, presumably as the new upper mid-range offerings from Qualcomm. The chipmaker already confirmed its next high-end silicon will be announced near the end of the year, most likely in December, in addition to revealing it opted not to force 5G connectivity and will instead offer it as an optional connectivity solution to manufacturers, allowing them to pay extra for its Snapdragon X50 modem. The base version of the Snapdragon 8150 is likely to be equipped with the Snapdragon X24 which still offers unprecedented 4G LTE performance.
Impact: Qualcomm’s Snapdragon rebranding signals the company intends to continue pushing its new notebook lineup simultaneously with the high-end mobile chips as part of a wider diversification strategy that also saw it invest significant sums in 5G, IoT, and a wide variety of other fields over the last several years. While the NXP purchase was originally meant to be the main diversification engine for Qualcomm, its collapse left the firm with an even more pressing need to continue making its portfolio more varied in order to ensure long-term sustainability as its licensing business is being challenged by clients such as Apple the world over.