Qualcomm has announced a new Snapdragon 850 processor at Computex that will only be used in Windows 10 Always Connected PCs. The Snapdragon 835 was the first to offer Always Connected capabilities for Windows computers, and the SD850 is essentially a successor to it with various performance upgrades. 

In fact, Qualcomm claims the 850 has 30 per cent improved performance, 20 per cent better battery life, and 20 per cent faster peak gigabit data speeds compared to the Snapdragon 835. It has some similarities with the Snapdragon 845 that has been used in the majority of Android flagships this year, such as being built on the same second-generation 10nm process. It also shares the same X20 modem for mobile connectivity, but ultimately, Qualcomm says it's by far more tuned to performing PC activities compared to the 845.

Always Connected PCs allow them to be just that. This means they can always be connected to either a Wi-Fi or LTE mobile data connection to receive notifications and have any data synced between devices without having to wait for anything to load first. 

Qualcomm says we can expect to see the first devices to use the Snapdragon 850 before the end of the year, from more partners than before. The company has developed the SD850 processor with Samsung, so we can certainly expect a device, or devices from the South Korean tech giant. There have also been rumours to suggest the SD850 will appear in a Microsoft Surface Phone made by Dell, although nothing is official just yet.