The company’s latest flagship SoC was pitted against the Snapdragon 801 in a couple of tests, which appear to prove that the new 20nm chip offers superior performance, while at the same time running at somewhat lower temperatures.

The tests were carried out by QTI Labs and carried by STJS Gadgets.

In the gaming test, running Asphalt 8, the new Snapdragon 810 ended up at about 40°C, approximately 5°C cooler than the Snapdragon 801. In the 4K video capture test, the gap was somewhat wider, 35°C versus 43°C in favour of the Snapdragon 810.

Early benchmarks suggest the 810 will end up at least 30% faster than the old 801, thanks to new 64-bit CPU cores and a powerful Adreno 430 GPU. However, the use of smaller node should keep power consumption and thermals at manageable levels, resulting in less throttling and better battery life.

The only problem for Qualcomm is the fact that Samsung won’t use the new chip in its upcoming Galaxy S refresh.