Microsoft placed some hardware requirements on OEMs with Windows Phone 7. The launch devices were equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 chipsets, all clocking at 1 GHz with 512 MB of RAM & Adreno 200 graphics. With the arrival of Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) & new second generation devices, these chipsets got a pretty nice performance bump. These new devices were equipped with Snapdragon S2 chipsets with processors overclocked up to 1.5 GHz & the same 512 MB of RAM. The graphics performance was about 75% faster because of new the Adreno 205 GPU in these new devices. With the launch of Windows Phone 7.5 “Refresh” (Tango), these requirements went down for producing lower cost Windows Phone devices with a mass market target. The Nokia Lumia 610 arrived with an 800 MHz processor & 256 MB of RAM. But, to move forward, to stay competitive, for killer apps & games, for becoming future proof & to stay with the time, Microsoft had to take giant leaps forward & with the announcement of Windows Phone 8, that’s exactly what they are doing.
Windows Phone 8 will have support for multi-core chipsets. These will include Dual-Core & even Quad-Core processors. Countless number of Android devices boasting dual-core & quad-core chipsets have arrived in the market. The newest generation iPhone, the iPhone 4S, has a dual-core chipset as well. To stay competitive, Windows Phone 8 is going to support the latest & greatest chipset that include the beefy Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 (dual-core) & Nvidia Tegra 3 (quad-core) processors with multi-core graphics. Android devices like the HTC One X & the Galaxy S III come equipped with variants of each for different markets. It’s safe to expect devices very similar to these but with Windows Phone 8. Microsoft announced that it’s focussing on dual-core chipsets this fall. Exciting times. Image Source: The Verge
