Qualcomm Exec Responds to Snapdragon 810 Overheating Issue

An executive from chip-maker Qualcomm has finally commented on the rumors about the Snapdragon 810 processor's overheating problems.

According to Tim McDonough, Qualcomm's vice president of Marketing, these rumors are untrue and were probably started by someone from a rival company, 9to5Google reported.

McDonough's statements came after the Dutch tech site Tweakers conducted a test on the HTC One M9 smartphone, which is powered by the Snapdragon 810. While comparing the device to several handsets equipped with other processors, the test revealed that the One M9 ran at significantly high temperatures.

In response, the Qualcomm executive maintained that the Snapdragon 810 does not have overheating problems.

"The rumors are rubbish, there was not an overheating problem with the Snapdragon 810 in commercial devices," the executive said during an interview with Forbes.

In defense of the Snapdragon 810, a representative from HTC also responded and said that the One M9 used in the test is a pre-released model and was only launched for evaluation purposes.

Similarly, LG also said that the Snapdragon 810 did not cause any heating-related problems with its G Flex 2. The company even stated that the chipset actually helped the smartphone model manage its heat.

To further prove the quality of the chipset, McDonough said the overheating rumors probably came from a rival company, such as Samsung.

Originally, Samsung was supposed to equip the Galaxy S6 with the Snapdragon 810 but went with its own Exynos 7420 chip instead.

Although McDonough did not directly say that the rumor originated from Samsung, the South Korean company could benefit from it since it has its own semiconductor division. In addition, the rumors could sway users into buying the Exynos-powered Galaxy devices instead of rival handsets equipped with the Snapdragon 810.

"In the Galaxy S6, the pendulum swung heavily to the other side," McDonough said. "It's not zero percent Qualcomm, there's still a significant modem business for us there. So I think looking at it historically, we're seeing the same thing happening with the pendulum swinging back and forth."

"But, in the short-term context of having had the business previously and having had the pendulum swing in the opposite direction for us, it's of course unfortunate," he added.