HTC Desire 820 teased in the race to become first real 64-bit Android phone

HTC has outed the HTC Desire 820 early, publishing an image that tells us it'll be the first HTC Android phone to use a 64-bit processor.

Having come from the HTC Weibo account and written in Chinese, we weren't able to translate the leaked advert for the HTC Desire 820 ourselves, but we're told it says the 820 is the "world's first octa-core 64-bit phone," by GSMarena.

The teaser also says we'll know more about the phone on 4 September, which lands just as IFA 2014 kicks off. You don't need to be a tech super sleuth to conclude this means we'll see the phone officially announced during or just before the tech show.

This leak does not tell us exactly what processor the HTC Desire 820 will use, but a little bit of deduction suggests it's the Qualcomm Snapdragon 615.

Snapdragon goes 64-bit

The Snapdragon 615 is an eight-core 64-bit processor intended for mid-range phones, sitting below the Snapdragon 808/810 and above the Snapdragon 410.

It fits the bill perfectly, and given all of HTC's recent mid-range Desire phones use Snapdragon CPUs rather than – for example – Mediatek ones, it's the only likely candidate.

64-bit phones are likely to be one of IFA 2014's big themes, as Android L will soon bring native 64-bit support to the system.

There have been Android devices that use 64-bit compatible processors to date, using Intel Atom CPUs. But these use a special kernel that lets them work, rather than really unlocking all that 64-bit goodness.

This is one Apple got there first on – the iPhone 5S and iOS 7 are already 64-bit. But 64-bit Android will let phones make use of even more RAM, for more serious data crunching.

We'll have to wait to see whether it'll just be used to shame us into upgrading, or whether there'll be some truly worthwhile applications for ordinary folk.