ISSUE 46 • ANDROID ADVISOR 87FEATUREpower for common and repetitive tasks. It’ll also use
a low-power audio subsystem for digital assistants, so
talking to your phone all day won’t kill your battery.
- Your pictures and
video will be even better
The cameras on our smartphones only do part of
the work when it comes to taking pictures. Much
of the heavy lifting is handled by image signal
processors. Qualcomm’s Spectra 280 ISP has been
greatly improved in the Snapdragon 845. Instead of
enhancing the resolution, which has pretty much been
maxed out on smartphones, the new chip focuses on
colour volume, meaning photos will be richer, deeper,
and more accurate than before.
The new chip will be able to take better photos in
low light, thanks to multi-frame noise reduction, faster
auto-focus, and accelerated image stabilization. The
ISP will also enable better portraits with depth-based
face recognition. On the video side, it will enable ultra
HD premium video capture for 4K 60fps video, as well
as 720p 480fps slow-motion video capture. - Security will be locked down
Like Apple’s Secure Enclave, Qualcomm is introducing
a Secure Processing Unit on the Snapdragon 845
that will keep your data from falling into the wrong
hands. With its own dedicated processor, the SPU will
set up a ‘secure island’ to protect fingerprint, iris, and
face biometric scans. The secure chip will also store
payment information and SIM card data for ultimate
peace of mind.