San Francisco — Qualcomm’s latest processing chips aim to tackle parts of the market that desire truly high-quality specs and performance without the exorbitant prices of the premium/flagship tier devices. Over several years, there has been a growing divide between the top performing smartphones and the rest of the pack. Platforms for mid-range devices have struggled to keep up, despite rapidly upgrading their technologies.
Qualcomm is now beefing up its 600 series with a new chip, and its most recent 700 series with two new chips, which are being positioned to bring manufacturers and therefore consumers, better options for latest technology and prices that won’t break the bank.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 730, Snapdragon 730G, and Snapdragon 665 will be shipping on devices in mid-2019 with several feature highlights, including AI, improved photo imaging and video streaming, gaming, power management, audio quality, improved location services and internet access, facial recognition, and optimized application downloads. Check out more details about the new chips below.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 730
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 chip aims to address many of issues that have caused device in mid-range and low-end tiers to lag in terms of AI processing and image quality for improved photography. The Snapdragon 730 is the first in the series to feature a tensor accelerator, a computer vision-ISP, and HDR, which helps enable features such as 3D face unlock and AI voice assistance support.
Overall, devices with the chip can benefit from many features, long relegated to the premium tier, such as apt-X adaptive for audio and Wi-fi 6. The chip supports 4K HDR for portrait mode and 4K video capture, as well as multi-frame noise reduction for cameras up to 48-megapixels and snapshots up to 192-megapixels. The chip is optimized for multi-camera support, which could potentially allow for four or more main lenses, or a multiple lens configuration on the back and front of the same device.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 730G will optimize devices for elite gaming with 15-percent faster graphics rendering than the Snapdragon 730. The chip is the first in the 700 series to support HDR gaming for smartphones, with a jank reducer, anti-cheat extensions, and a Wi-Fi latency manager.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 665
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 chip aims to optimize photography and gaming on mid-range devices. Smartphones running the chip will be able to support triple cameras, lenses up to 48-megapixels for still images and up to 25-megapixels for video, with AI processing for continuous improvement of images. Cameras will be able to feature telephoto, wide angle, super-wide angle lenses and 5x optical zoom and support portrait mode, HDR, 4K video capture and 3D face unlock.
For optimized gaming the Snapdragon 665 will support Qualcomm Apex, Vulkan graphics, LTE Advanced, and Wi-Fi 5.
