The reference design for Qualcomm's 845-based VR headset platform.
Categories

Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 845 heralds powerful standalone VR/AR headsets with eye and body tracking

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 3 min

Qualcomm has revealed its Snapdragon 845 Xtended Reality (XR) platform for both mobile virtual reality and augmented reality mobile headsets. The new platform will be the brains of standalone mobile VR headsets, which don’t have to be connected to a PC to operate. Qualcomm’s VR/AR platform will be targeted at partner projects such as the Facebook Oculus Go headset and the HTC Vive Focus (which is selling in China).

The new Snapdragon 845 chip is a mobile processor that succeeds last year’s 835 processor, which is available in more than 20 XR devices to date. XR refers to extended reality, which includes AR, VR, and mixed reality technologies. Qualcomm is showing off the 845 platform at Mobile World Congress, held next week in Barcelona, Spain.

Unlock premium content and VIP community perks with GB M A X! Join now to enjoy our free and premium perks. 

Join now →

Sign in to your account.

Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.