A fmonths ago, rumours were rife that Samsung had inked a pact with Qualcomm to make sure the upcoming flagship smartphone Galaxy S7 series hold exclusivity of boasting the Snapdragon 820 CPU till April.

But the American semi-conductor major, while hosting a press briefing at the ongoing CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2016 in Las Vegas, has officially announced that Chinese-made Letv Le Max Pro will be the world's first Snapdragon 820-based smartphone. It is confirmed to hit stores in the first half of 2016.

Beside the Snapdragon 820 CPU, Letv Le Max Pro is also confirmed to boast Qualcomm's Snapdragon Sense ID 3D finger-print technology, the world's first ultrasonic based-biometric security feature, which is said to more secure compared to rivals Samsung and Apple devices.

"The Snapdragon Sense ID platform incorporates algorithm managed by the Qualcomm SecureMSM foundation, the Qualcomm Biometric Integrated Circuit and custom sensor technology. And it is integrated into the Qualcomm Haven authentication framework, which supports secure biometric authentication for a variety of online and off-line formats," said the company.

Key facts of Qualcomm Snapdragon 820:

  • It houses the Qualcomm Kryo CPU and the Adreno 530 GPU
  • Qualcomm Spectra 14-bit dual ISP (Image Signal Processors) with Hexagon 680 DSP's HVX performance will enable advanced computational photography such as object recognition, low-light photo and video, as well as touch-to-track features, marrying high-quality media with intuitive use
  • Integrated X12 LTE modem will allow download speed of up to a staggering 600Mbps
  • Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 technology, which enable super-fast charging. Phones fitted with this chipset will be charged from 0 to 60% within 30 minutes.

Key facts of Qualcomm Snapdragon Sense ID:

  • Snapdragon Sense ID has the ability to create a highly detailed 3D image of the unique and subtle features of a user's fingerprint by penetrating the outer layers of the skin
  • It can scan through common contaminants like sweat, lotion, and condensation, and still be able validate a person's fingerprint impression
  • It can be incorporated in a device's cover glass, aluminum, stainless steel, sapphire, and plastics, thus giving smartphone-makers flexibility of have numerous design options for device.
  • It is integrated with the FIDO (Fast IDentity Online) Universal Authentication Framework (UAF) biometrics standard.