Qualcomm today unveiled its latest mid-range mobile platforms: the Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 630. Both chipsets/mobile platforms come with a number of improvements and bring many of the features found in the company’s current flagship chipset: the Snapdragon 835.
Both chipsets are based on the 14nm fabrication process, with the Snapdragon 660 being more powerful of the bunch. Featuring an octa-core design and successor to Snapdragon 653, the chip features 4x Kryo 260 ‘Performance’ cores @ 2.2GHz and 4x Kryo 260 ‘Efficiency’ cores @ 1.8GHz. This is the first time that we have seen Qualcomm use its Kryo cores in its mid-range offerings. This is paired with an Adreno 512 GPU that supports Vulkan API. Qualcomm says that its new chip should be 20 percent faster in the CPU department and 30 percent faster in the GPU department when compared to the Snapdragon 653 chipset.
Other features of the Snapdragon 660 mobile platform include support for LPDDR$ RAM, ability to encode 4K videos and slow-mo videos at 1080p@120fps, support for Bluetooth 5.0, Hexagon 680DSP, and All-Ways Aware. Qualcomm has been consistently pushing the boundaries with its mid-range chipsets by equipping them with faster modems. On the Snapdragon 660, the company is using its Snapdragon X12 modem that offers speeds of up to 600Mbps/150Mbps (up). This is the same modem found on Qualcomm’s last year flagship, the Snapdragon 820/821.
Then, there is the Snapdragon 630 which is the successor to the excellent Snapdragon 625/626 chipset. Based on 14nm fabrication process, the chipset packs 4x Cortex-A53 cores running at 2.2GHz and another set of 4x Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.8GHz. This is paired with an Adreno 508 GPU, Dual 14-bit Spectra 160 ISP, support for LPDDR4 RAM, and a Snapdragon X12 LTE modem.
The Snapdragon 630 and Snapdragon 626 are pin and software compatible. They both support Bluetooth 5.0 and are Quick Charge 4.0 compatible.
Qualcomm has already made the Snapdragon 660 available to OEMs and expects devices to be available with it starting from July this year. The Snapdragon 630 will start being sampled to OEMs from the end of this month, with devices expected to be available from Q3 2017.
