High-end VR is difficult. VR is difficult to develop and difficult to use. To enjoy a high-end VR experience, I need cables, a gaming PC, sensors and sometimes a computer grade to set up. VR is not as easy as picking up a phone or a tablet and just using it.
Hence the need to collect and use VR. Sure, we have Gear VR and the various clones, but that's not high-end. The device requires insertion of a phone with limited battery life.
Oculus and others are working in autonomous VR with six degrees of freedom. Stand-alone headphones will not require cables, sensors or game PCs.
It is rumored that Oculus will launch a standalone VR phone next year. The Snapdragon 835 CPU could be a good candidate for the new VR headset.
The CPU to turn these headphones on will definitely have to be a mobile beast. Qualcomm is the current leader in mobile CPUs with its Snapdragon 835 CPU that powers most high-end phones, including the Samsung S8.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Features at a glance
CPU
Production process: 10nm (nm)
CPU clock speed: Up to 2.45 GHz
CPU Cores: 8x Qualcomm Kryo 280 CPU
CPU bit architecture: 64-bit
GPU
GPU Name: Qualcomm Adreno 540 GPU
Support API: OpenGL ES 3.2, Full OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan, DX12
Display
4K Ultra HD, Up To 4K
UI FPS: Up to 60 FPS
Color Depth: Up to 10 bits
Color Category: Rec2020
Standards: ULTRA HD PREMIUM-ready
What's next for Qualcomm?
As powerful as the Snapdragon 835 is, VR needs as much CPU and GPU as you can throw at it. The next Qualcomm chip, which is rumored to be the 845 Snapdragon CPU, moves the production process from 10nm to 835 to 7nm to 845. However, this is rumored at this point. Moving to a different manufacturing process is very costly and requires retooling of factories. In all likelihood, the 845 will remain at 10 nm.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Features at a glance (Rumors)
CPU
Production process: 7nm - 10nm (nm)
CPU clock speed: Up ?? GHz
CPU cores: 8 cores (four Cortex A75, paired with four low power A53)
CPU bit architecture: 64-bit
GPU
GPU Name: Qualcomm Adreno 630 GPU
Support API: OpenGL ES 3.2, Full OpenCL 2.0, Vulkan, DX12
There is also UFS 2.1 storage and LPDDR4X memory, which should improve performance and efficiency.
Snapdragon 845 CPU Time
Since Samsung and other high-end phones already contain the 835. They will be looking to incorporate the 845 into their high-end phones next year. Samsung usually launches its high-end phones in April. Therefore, we can expect that the devices containing the 845 CPU will begin to reach the end of Q1 by the beginning of the second quarter of 2018.
The synchronization of the 845 chip early next year combined with the need for greater processing power and battery savings makes it very likely that the first Oculus VR headset will be powered by the Snapdragon 845.
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