Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 620, 618, 42Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 620, 618, 425 and 4155 and 415
When we talk about Qualcomm and the future of mobile processors all roadmaps and leaks seem to naturally revolve around the high-end 800 series chipsets. The 810 is just now making its way on to actual production devices and the new 14nm manufacturing technology is really exciting to say the least.
However, while beastly hardware moves the industry forward it is the mid and low range that truly fuels it and powers the majority of devices out there. Qualcomm knows this better than most and is working hard to keep up with market demands and offer feature rich, affordable silicon at budget-friendly prices.
This is precisely the goal with the latest Snapdragon 415, 425, 618 and 620. These chips are all about the added value and bringing advanced technology to mid-range devices. Qualcomm is stressing that the new models will bring high-end features to the every level of their product stack.
First up are the Snapdragon 415 and 425. Both of them replace the traditional quad-core design of the 400 series with a more capable eight-core Cortex A53 setup. Both are also 64-bit and support the ARMv8 instruction set and are based on current 28nm manufacturing technology.
This in itself is a formidable step up in performance, but the chip giant has packed in a few more additional goodies. The two new 400-series members now have Quick-charge 2.0, as well as dual image signal processors (ISPs), which are supposed to allow much better cameras in mid-ranged devices.
The graphics ship has also been bumped up to the Adreno 405, which is not that more powerful than the Adreno 306 in the Snapdragon 410, but does offer hardware decoding for 1080p H.264 video and an external display resolution support of up to 1080p. The sole difference between the 415 and 425 models seems to be the LTE modem. On the lower end we have a X5 LTE modem, offering Cat. 4 speeds of up to 150Mbps, while the alternative chip comes with a X8 modem and twice the speed at 300Mbps.
The two new 600-series models seem to bring even more innovation to the family line. The Snapdragon 610 and 615 chips are not seeing a lot of manufacturer attention, with crowds either going for the 410 on the low end, which is not that different from the 610, or the 800 for more premium models. Qualcomm has surely realized this and is probably aiming to rekindle the series mid-range popularity with the new 618 and 620 models.
The big change here is that both new units use the brand new Cortex A72 cores, that are said to be twice as powerful than the A57. Naturally there are both 64-bit and are also built using a big.LITTLE configuration for optimal power-to-performance balance. The two chips also come with what is described as a "next-generation Qualcomm Adreno GPU". Qualcomm has not disclosed any information on this matter yet, but we will be sure to update you once the smoke clears.
The 618 and 620 models are both equipped with X8 LTE modems, capable of 300Mbps downloads and are built using a 28nm manufacturing process. Among the more interesting new features they bring to the family is 4K playback and capture support, along with 4K H.265 hardware decoding, previously limited to the high-end 800 series. The main difference between the two chips is that the 618 comes with a hexa-core setup (two A72 and four A53), whereas the 620 is octa-core(four A72 and four A53). Judging by ARM's promises, that latest chip might end up being the fastest the company has announced so far. Until the Cortex-A72-based Snapdragon 8xx arrives that is.
