Qualcomm has not yet confirmed that the next top-end smartphone chipset following the Snapdragon 835. However, the rumors are rife that the Snapdragon 845 is on the way and according to the latest benchmark results, it will be more powerful than Apple's very own A9 chipset.
WCCFTech reported that the alleged Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 got a higher score than the Apple A9 processor after the benchmarking performed by GeekBench4. The result is a good indication that the Snapdragon processors are very close to matching, or even outclassing, the capabilities of Apple's super-fast smartphone chipsets.
The original benchmark results from GeekBench4 was posted on the Chinese microblogging website Weibo, wherein the Snapdragon 845 managed to get more than 2600. The benchmark test is focused on single-core processors, although the high score garnered by the Snapdragon 845 says something about its performance.
However, the public should be reminded that Qualcomm has not yet confirmed that the Snapdragon 845 is under development, or if such a variant even exists. It is possible that the benchmark result for the alleged Snapdragon chipset is for another processor.
Likewise, even if the benchmarked Snapdragon chipset is indeed the 845, there is still a long way for Qualcomm to completely topple the performance of Apple's high-end microchips.
For one, the A9 processor is already outdated and was last used with the iPhone 6S in 2014. Also, the current A10 Fusion processor received a score of over 3000, which is higher than the score of the still-upcoming Snapdragon 845.
Lastly, Apple recently launched the latest 10nm A11 processors for the iPhone 8 handsets, further widening the gap between the Snapdragon 845 and Apple chipsets in terms of single-core performance.
Meanwhile, there is still uncertainty if Qualcomm will launch the successor of Snapdragon 835 as Snapdragon 845. It was noted that the chipset maker might release the Snapdragon 836 instead as the next high-end smartphone processor instead of 845.
The Snapdragon 836 is rumored to be included in the Google Pixel 2 hardware specs. Although, there are reports that the next top-end system-on-chip (SoC) from Qualcomm will not be named 836.
