In 2020, 5G will start to bring real benefits to people, but 4G LTE networks are not going anywhere. In any case, they will remain the de facto fastest means of communication in most countries of the world. Therefore, it is not surprising that Qualcomm has introduced a trio of modern processors for 4G-oriented smartphones.
At a press conference in New Delhi, the company announced the new Snapdragon 720G, 662 and 460 chips. All of them have some common characteristics: support for Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, AI-based photo capabilities, and support for the Indian satellite positioning system NavIC. Of course, the chips are designed primarily for the markets of developing countries, but smartphones based on them will also appear in the US and other developed countries.
The Snapdragon 720G is an 8nm octa-core chip (2x Cortex-A75 and 55x Cortex-A2,33) with a maximum CPU frequency of 20GHz and is clearly the most powerful of the trio - it will be aimed at more expensive phones, although not full-fledged flagships. like the Samsung Galaxy S10. The G in the name indicates the chip's gaming orientation, so you can expect increased GPU performance, 855-bit HDR, and the same anti-cheat measures that Qualcomm has built into its advanced processors like the Snapdragon XNUMX.
The SD720G also includes a Hexagon 692 signal processor for AI operations, full support for 4K video recording, and high-speed displays up to 2520 x 1080. Perhaps most importantly, the X15 LTE chipset modem delivers download speeds of up to 800 Mbps - in reality, of course, users will almost never see such good speeds, but still.
The 11nm Snapdragon 662 resembles a downsized version of the 720G. Of course, this is also an octa-core chip (4 powerful cores paired with 4 energy efficient ones), but its maximum frequency is about 2 GHz, and the X11 modem can reach a theoretical limit of about 390 Mbps per download. Qualcomm said the SD662 supports new triple camera configurations and seamless switching between them (up to 192MP photo resolution) and saves images in the ultra-efficient HEIF file format.
Finally, the 11nm 8-core Snapdragon 460 uses the same X11 modem and low-end AI processor as the SD662. And the new high-performance Kryo 240 @2,3GHz cores deliver 70% faster single-chip CPU performance than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 450. The new GPU architecture, in turn, will be 60% faster than the SD450.
Qualcomm will benefit greatly from the 5G rollout this year, but the 4G market is still good business. In emerging markets, the company faces serious competition from chip makers like Mediatek, not to mention smartphone makers that use their own processors (like Samsung and Huawei). How successful the new Qualcomm chips will be is not clear, but they look pretty interesting.
The first devices based on Snapdragon 720G will hit the market this quarter, while smartphones based on Snapdragon 662 and 460 will be released at the end of 2020.
Source: 3dnews.ru