Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon 617 and Snapdragon 430 chipsets

BY Rajesh Pandey

Published 15 Sep 2015

qualcomm_snapdragon

Qualcomm today announced two new low- and mid-range Snapdragon chip solutions: the Snapdragon 430 and Snapdragon 617.

The Snapdragon 430 will be Qualcomm’s first low-end budget chipset to come with an Adreno 505 GPU that supports OpenGL ES 3.1, Android Extension Pack, and OpenCL. The octa-core chipset features Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.2GHz, a Hexagon 536 DSP, an integrated X6 LTE modem with Cat. 4 support to allow for a maximum theoretical download speed of up to 150Mbps, and 2x10MHz carrier aggregation.

Snapdragon 430

The inclusion of a dual-ISP that supports sensors of up to 21MP on the chipset will also help OEMs in greatly improving the camera experience of their low-end devices. Lastly, the chipset features support for Full HD displays and video capture and playback.

Qualcomm expects the first wave of Snapdragon 430 chipset to show up “later in 2016.”

Next in line is the Snapdragon 617 chipset targeted towards mid-range devices. The octa-core chipset features A53 cores clocked at up to 1.5GHz, a Hexagon 546 DSP, an Adreno 405 GPU, and dual-ISPs for support for photos of up to 21MP. It also features an integrated X8 LTE modem with Cat. 7 support that allows for a maximum theoretical download of up to 300Mbps and 2x20MHz carrier aggregation.

Qualcomm says that its Snapdragon 617 chipset is very similar to its existing Snapdragon 620 and Snapdragon 618 chipsets that allow for software compatibility between them. This will allow OEMs to adopt the Snapdragon 617 chipset in their designs quickly. The first wave of Snapdragon 617 powered devices are expected to show up in devices by the end of 2015.

snapdragon_617_features

A common feature that is present in both chipsets, is support for Qualcomm’s newly unveiled Quick Charge 3.0 technology. This will allow handsets powered by these chipsets to charge from 0-80% in around 35 minutes. Qualcomm has also made efforts to fast-track the regional certification of these chipsets through its Reference Design programs and Global Pass solutions.

More information about the Snapdragon 617 chipset can be found here.

[Via Qualcomm]