The latest Qualcomm Snapdragon chips are finally coming, as the company announced that its Snapdragon MSM8655 system-on-a-chip and the new MDM9600 LTE modem are finding their way to phones on Verizon’s network.

We first heard about a 1.2GHz Snapdragon late last summer, supposedly in line for an early 2011 release. Right on schedule, Qualcomm says that Verizon will be showing off the first smartphones with the MSM8655 under the hood this week at the CES. While dual-core processors are making headlines right now, we’re not expecting any sort of major market shift over to those chips, leaving plenty of room for designs like Qualcomm’s.

The MSM8655 runs at 1.2GHz, has a built-in graphics processor, and is supposedly optimized for low-power operation.

As Verizon adds more LTE capacity to its network, its phones should benefit from Qualcomm’s MDM9600 LTE package, falling back to 3G speeds when the connection’s not available. While Qualcomm is committed to outfitting Verizon with its chips, there’s always the chance we’ll see them in phones running on AT&T’s LTE network, once it gets that off the ground.

Look for the pairing of the MDM9600 and MSM8655 popping up on plenty of 4G Verizon phones this year.

Source: Qualcomm

Via: Phone Scoop