Qualcomm formalizes four new chips that we’ll see on the market by the end of the year: here are the news, and where and when we’ll see them
Qualcomm announced today four new chips that we’ll probably “meet” often in the coming months within the smartphone market. Two of them can hardly be called new: they are those marked by the suffix “Plus”, which in fact make small improvements to existing products.
The other two instead, Snapdragon 695 5G and 680 4G are those that offer the most food for thought, although they seem to have two distinctly different uses in light of compatibility or incompatibility with next-generation networks. In fact, the former offers full support for 5G networks, while the latter is clearly intended to equip those products destined for regions of the world that require cheaper ones, in which 5G is not too widespread and its implementation is proceeding at a slow pace. Here, in brief, news and changes of the 4 new chips for all pockets with which Qualcomm will “attack” the leadership of MediaTek.
New Qualcomm chips
Among the new chips of Qualcomm the one to make probably the biggest leap forward compared to the current offer is the Snapdragon 695 that retires the Snapdragon 690: it comes with support for 5G networks with both mmWave and sub-6 technology, both very fast in signal transmission. The news is important because the new Snapdragon 695 should be used on mid-range products, so it will bring the 5G browsing experience typical of higher-end smartphones even on relatively cheaper products.
In comparison to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 695 offers a performance increase that Qualcomm engineers have quantified in 15% in terms of CPU and 30% in terms of GPU, then graphics performance. For the rest, it is a 2.2 GHz octa core chip that is made with a 6 nanometer manufacturing process, supports 120 Hz screens and has Wi-Fi ac and Bluetooth 5.2. Of the chip was also made official a variant without 5G with slightly lower specifications called Snapdragon 680 4G: probably it will be used on those cheap smartphones that will be intended for countries still particularly behind on the spread of 5G.
Minor novelties for Snapdragon 778 Plus that compared to the “standard” variant seems better in the operating frequency, which however grows only by 100 MHz reaching 2.5 GHz. Marginal changes also for another “Plus” chip from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 480 Plus whose operating frequency increases by 200 MHz to 2.2 GHz, gets Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi ac instead of Wi-Fi 6 ready certification.
Who will use the new Qualcomm chips and where
All the new Qualcomm chips have already been distributed to smartphone manufacturers and are expected to debut on new products that will hit the market in the latter part of the year. Many companies should draw from the renewed Qualcomm list: expected products with the new chips from Xiaomi, which should use both Snapdragon 778 Plus and Snapdragon 695, while Nokia / HMD Snapdragon 480 Plus.