HTC Bolt - Why use Snapdragon 810 for the CPU?

[PyroSporker]

HTC Bolt
Why!? The 810 is more than a year old already!

 

[PyroSporker]

I had hoped that the final release would have a better SoC than all the rumors and FCC approval documents had been reporting. I waited patiently until release day, hoping... It turned out to be the Snapdragon 810 all the way. From rumor to release.

So what gives? Why use the 810? Because there was an excess surplus of 810 inventory that needed to be unloaded?
Was the 810 radio used because it is the first/only radio, thus far, that can achieve three-channel carrier aggregation out of the box?

 

[lvt]

The 810 is more than a year but its capabilities haven't been fully exploited yet.

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/processors/810

Did you ever see a smartphone that has all the above features?

 

[PyroSporker]

https://www.qualcomm.com/products/snapdragon/processors/810

Did you ever see a smartphone that has all the above features?

Every smartphone that has the Snapdragon 810 installed in it (and there is quite a few of them over the last year and a half - note there was an 810 revision after initial release) have those features. Whether or not device manufacturers, software installations, or carrier networks, are utilizing all the possible installed and even unused options is a different kind of problem.

The HTC M9 had the Snapdragon 810 (April 2015 - 20 mo. ago)
The HTC 10 had the Snapdragon 820 (April 2016 - 8 mo. ago)
The new Pixel phones have the Snapdragon 821 (nearly 2 mo. ago)
Coming early next year will be the Snapdragon 830

820 vs. 810
"The 64-bit Kryta CPU is one of the bigger changes and will reportedly offer twice the performance of the 810."
"The Adreno 530 GPU is, on paper, similarly impressive and according to Qualcomm will offer “40 per cent better performance than the 810.""
"a smartphone using the Snapdragon 820 could theoretically see speeds of up to 600Mbps downlink, and 150Mbps uplink. This is a massive improvement on the 810's X10 LTE modem, which offered lower theoretical maximum download and upload speeds of 450Mbps and 50Mbps respectively."
"Snapdragon 820 Antutu score - 820 is 54% faster than 810"
"Snapdragon 820 3DMark Slingshot Score - 820 is 34% faster than 810"
"Snapdragon 820 GeekBench 3 Multi-Core Score - 26% increase"
"According to the Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 820 uses 30% less power than the Snapdragon 810 overall"
http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/snapdragon-820-vs-snapdragon-810