The new chip from Qualcomm has been presented: it's ideal for those looking for a concrete and cheap mid-range smartphone, but don't need 5G
The American giant of SoCs for smartphones Qualcomm has announced a new processor: the Snapdragon 678, an evolution of the previous Snapdragon 675. This is a chip intended for mid-range smartphones 2021, with good photographic capabilities and decent performance in gaming. It lacks, however, support for 5G.
So it will be the ideal SoC for those looking for a medium smartphone concrete, reliable, low consumption and has no real interest in 5G connection (perhaps because it has no 5G coverage) and does not need very high performance. Smartphones, to understand us, from the good price/performance ratio: the models that make the big numbers, even if they do not go down in history for any feature in particular. Everything will depend, of course, on the final selling price of the device but it is easy to see that much of the mid-low range next year will integrate this SoC, while from the mid-high upwards it will be essential to have 5G.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 678: technical specifications
The Snapdragon 678 is the big brother of the Snapdragon 675, compared to which it has two main advantages: a clock speed of the Kryo 460 CPU that reaches 2.2 GHz (+200 MHz) and an increase in performance of the Adreno 612 GPU. There is also an engine for basic artificial intelligence algorithms.
In addition, the integration of the ISP Spectra 250L increases the photographic capabilities of smartphones with Snapdragon 678, which can handle photos up to 48 MP (or a dual camera 16 MP + 16 MP) and 4K video. The connection, as already mentioned, is only 4G because of the Snapdragon X12 LTE modem.
What smartphones with Snapdragon 678 will be able to do
The System on Chip is the heart of every smartphone and, consequently, rigidly determines its capabilities and limits. This is why all smartphones with the same SoC have similar, if not identical features.
A smartphone equipped with Snapdragon 678 will be able to have a maximum of 8 GB of DDR4 RAM, a display with a maximum resolution of 2,520×1,080 pixels, Wi-Fi 5, 4G network, Bluetooth 5.0 and Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ charging, up to a maximum power of 27 Watts with a USB Power Delivery cable.