Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G, 662 and 460 launched for mid-range and budget smartphones

Qualcomm’s new processers will debut with budget and mid-range phones slated to launch later this year.

Qualcomm launches new processors. (REUTERS)

Qualcomm has refreshed its smartphone processor lineup with as many as three new SoCs, each falling in its Snapdragon 400, Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 700 series. The chipset maker has launched the Snapdragon 460, Snapdragon 662 and Snapdragon 720G processors aimed at mid-range and budget smartphones that will be coming out later this year. The new processors, as mentioned by Qualcomm, are meant to deliver better performance when it comes to day-to-day functions, AI, camera and gaming performance. It is worth adding that while the Snapdragon 400 and Snapdragon 600 series are being updated after a while, the Snapdragon 700 series was updated just last month with the 5G supporting Snapdragon 765.

The most powerful in the trio, Qualcomm Snapdragon 720G features company's own Snapdragon X15 LTE modem, Qualcomm FastConnect 6200, Bluetooth v5.1, TrueWireless Stereo and Wi-Fi 6 support as a part of connectivity. Handling the GPU performance is the Adreno 618 GPU that is claimed to deliver better performance and supports HDR playback. The octa-core processor comprises two A76 cores clocked at 2.3GHz and six A55 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. The Snapdragon 720G also has Spectra 350L image signal processor that supports up to 192-megapixel photo capture, HEIF and 4K video capture. You also get support for Quick Charge 4+, which is claimed to deliver 0-50% charge in under 15 minutes.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 662 makes use of Snapdragon X11 LTE modem, FastConnect 6100, Wi-Fi 6 support, Bluetooth v5.1 and TrueWireless Stereo for connectivity. Besides the Adreno 610 GPU, the processor also has four Cortex A73 and four Cortex A53 cores along with Spectra 340T that can support up to 48-megapixel images, HEIF and triple camera setup. There's Quick Charge 3 as well that is said to charge a smartphone from 0-50% in 20 minutes. It supports Dual Charge as well.

The Snapdragon 460 is the least powerful in the lot and is most likely for the budget smartphones that are usually priced under ₹10,000. The processor has Snapdragon X11 LTE modem, FastConnect 6100 and Wi-Fi support under connectivity. This comes in addition to Adreno 610 GPU and Kyro 240 CPU, which is also the first ever performance core used in a 4xx processor series. Spectra 340 will handle the camera capabilities of the smartphones. It supports 25-megapixel cameras and dual 16-megapixel cameras as well. And with Quick Charge 3.0 tech, the smartphone is claimed to charge from 0-50% in 20 minutes.

Qualcomm's three new processors bring down the number of new processor launches to five in less than two months. While we have seen Qualcomm introducing Snapdragon 865 for premium handsets, the Snapdragon 765 and 720G are for upper-mid range smartphones. The Snapdragon 662 is meant for mid-range handsets while the Snapdragon 460 is for budget devices. We may soon see smartphones featuring these new processors this year. When exactly? We cannot say for sure yet. However, we may see Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 765 before these three as few companies have already announced devices coming with these two processors.