Qualcomm teases HTC 10 Snapdragon chip ahead of next week’s launch

HTC has been publishing its own revealing teasers for the upcoming flagship smartphone over the past few weeks. The HTC 10 is going to have ‘the best BoomSound yet‘, a ‘compelling camera‘, and a shiny, polished chamfer on the back according to the manufacture’s past tweets. Now Qualcomm has joined in with the pre-launch games…

Ahead of next week’s online unveiling, Qualcomm tweeted an image clearly indicating that its own Snapdragon chip will be powering HTC’s next solid, all-metal flagship smartphone.

Unless the company has developed a bespoke chip, optimized especially for HTC, we can safely assume that the chip inside the phone will be the Snapdragon 820 processor. It is the SoC of choice for both Samsung and LG with their respective Galaxy S7 and G5 lineups.

The power of #Snapdragon meets the #powerof10. Are you ready for next week? pic.twitter.com/Gkf8jkWat1

— Qualcomm (@Qualcomm) April 7, 2016

Unlike the Galaxy S7 and G5, however, HTC isn’t hosting a major press event. Instead, it’s streaming a live online-only event on April 12 at 8am Eastern time.

Along with the Snapdragon 820 processor, HTC’s next high-end device is expected to feature the trademark solid aluminum build and a 5.2-inch Quad HD display as well as a 12MP camera with dual-LED flash and laser autofocus. While it’s going to feature ‘the best BoomSound yet’, it’s not going to feature traditional front-firing speakers. We’re expecting the audio hardware to be laid out a little differently.

The big question here is whether or not the device can help it compete in an increasingly competitive market, with Samsung already having released one of the best smartphones of all time. More importantly, can the device stop HTC’s financial free-fall? Revenue in Q1 of this year dropped a massive 64% on the same quarter a year ago, and saw the Taiwanese company’s quarterly revenue dip to just NT$41.5 million, or roughly $128 million US Dollars.