At the end of December 2019 Qualcomm announced its solution regarding the top of the range devices that will arrive during the course of 2020. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 865,765 and 765G are in fact the SoC designed for the high and medium-high end of the market, leaving instead to SoC 600 and 400 series the task of managing the huge amount of lower-end smartphones.
The US giant now announced the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G, 662 and 460, designed precisely to better manage the new demands in terms of power of the medium and medium-low range of the market. None of the three have 5G support, obviously still cut off from cheap smartphones, but they wink at Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, GNSS navigation system, better consumption management (fundamental element for cheap smartphones), support to dual VoLTE for Snap 720G and new features for AI.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G Specifications
The suffix G of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G we know what it refers to. It is a SoC equipped with a series of features designed for gaming, which makes us understand that the chip will find a place inside smartphones equipped with a rather performing hardware compartment.
The processor is produced with an 8 nm production process and uses the new Kryo 465 architecture. The innovations compared to the Snapdragon 712 are many and embrace numerous areas of the phone. Together with the arrival of a new AI engine designed to ensure better performance from the point of view of gaming and performance in general, the Snapdragon 720G also improves the response speed of the digital assistants as well as the ability to manage 120 Hz displays.
Snap 720G supports Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, which allows the chip to better manage connectivity, while it will be the first to support the new Indian NavIC satellite system.
From a purely numerical point of view, the new SoC presents theAdreno 618GPUcapable of guaranteeing a 15% boost compared to the Adreno 616 present in the Snap 712, a new ISP for the management of the photographic sector, the Bluetooth 5.1 module with the aptX Adaptive codec and Quick Charge 4+ fast charging technology.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 Specifications
The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 has some features that we had already seen with the Snapdragon 665, but remaining less powerful than the latter. The new SoC is assembled with an 11 nm production process and is characterized by a Kryo 260 architecture.
The GPU is the same that we find in the Snap 665, therefore anAdreno 610which represents a nice leap in quality compared to theAdreno512 present within the old generation of Snapdragon 660. There are also improvements regarding the presence of a new AI engine (Hexagon 683) and also in the photographic field thanks to the new IPSSpectra 340Twith lots of support for the HEIF format and triple sensor solutions.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 460 Specifications
Finally, theSnapdragon 460is the one that will take the place within the new generation of medium-low end smartphones.We must not underestimate the qualities of Qualcomms new SoC, especially if we consider the high number of smartphones with fairly discrete hardware marketed in the Indian and Chinese market.
Compared to the older generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 -, the US company says that we are facing a leap forward of 70%. The same thing can be said also as regards the graphic counterpart, where the arrival of the Adreno 610 guarantees a boost of the performances of about 60%.
The new Snapdragon 460 is based on the 11 nm productionprocess a big step forward compared to that of the Snap 450 -, and for the first time presents the Kryo 240 architecture which takes the place of the much-used Cortex-A53.The AI engine changes and is now able to offer substantial improvements in several areas.
Support comes to LPDDR4 / 4X RAM with 8 GB modules at 1866 MHz frequency, the new ISP 340 with support for triple cameras, the new Snapdragon X11 modem, Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. The change of pace compared to the old Snapdragon 450 is therefore clear, which will allow the arrival on the market of a new range of cheap smartphones but characterized by much better presentations.