Qualcomm Technologies has unveiled three new chipsets at its 4G / 5G Summit held in Hong Kong. Snapdragon 427, 626 and 653 are the brand new SoCs. They are the successors of the Snapdragon 425, 625 and 652 respectively and will power up the budget to upper mid-range devices.
The newly launched Snapdragon 427, 626 and 653 features integrated support for dual camera arrangement, the newer Snapdragon X9 LTE modem, Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 along with incremental performance improvements. So far, the dual camera support was restricted only to Qualcomm’s top of the line Snapdragon 820 and 821 chipsets. With the latest SoCs, we will see mid-range and even budget handset sporting the dual camera system.
Snapdragon 427
This is the newest member of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 400 family. The Snapdragon 427 or MSM 8920 aims mainly at the budget to mid-range devices. The SoC is the successor of the Snapdragon 425 or MSM 8917. The latest chipset comes with the same 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex A53 running at up to 1.4 GHz along with Adreno 308 GPU. Thus, regarding performance, the newly launched SoC is similar to its predecessor.
The most important aspects in which the Snapdragon 427 triumphs over the Snapdragon 425 are:
- The newer chip natively supports dual camera set-up which is entirely lacked by the Snapdragon 425.
- The Snapdragon 427 sports Snapdragon X9 LTE modem which features up to 300 Mb/s download speed and 150 Mb/s upload speed. This is exactly double of that of the Snapdragon 425 which maxes out at 150 Mb/s download and 75 Mb/s upload rate.
- The latest Snapdragon 427 supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 while its predecessor only supports Quick Charge 2.0.
- The newly launched chipset is equipped with MU-MIMO capable dual band Wi-Fi.
- Snapdragon 427 brings out of the box support for advanced calling services like Wi-Fi calling, VoLTE (Voice over LTE) and HD / Ultra HD Voice (EVS – Enhanced Voice Services)
- The brand new SoC sports Qualcomm’s TruSignal for enhanced reception at congested locations.
Snapdragon 626
The Snapdragon 626 or MSM 8953 Pro is a slightly upgraded version of the Snapdragon 625 or MSM 8953. The newly launched chipset is manufactured using the same 14 nm process of its predecessor. It has a similar set of eight 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 cores running. However, the Snapdragon 626 has a peak clock speed of 2.2 GHz while the Snapdragon 625 can only reach 2.0 GHz. The same Adreno 506 GPU powers both the chips but in the newer SoC, it presumably runs at a higher frequency.
The notable features of the Snapdragon 626 are:
- 10 percent performance improvement in respect to its predecessor.
- 7 4G LTE download speed (300 Mb/s) and Cat. 13 upload speed (150 Mb/s)
- Supports Dual Camera Arrangement.
- The Snapdragon 626 sports Qualcomm TruSignal network boosting chip which is absent in the Snapdragon 625.
Snapdragon 653
This is the elevated version of the hugely popular Snapdragon 652 or MSM 8976 chipset. The Snapdragon 653 or MSM 8976 Pro is manufactured using the same 28 nm process. The latest SoC sports the identical octa-core arrangement with four ARM Cortex A72 and four ARM Cortex A53 cores. The newer chip features a higher clock speed of 1.95 GHz in comparison to the 1.8 GHz frequency of the Snapdragon 652. The GPU is the same Adreno 510, only with a higher clock speed.
The prominent specifications of the Snapdragon 653 are:
- It is about 8 percent more powerful than the Snapdragon 652.
- The newly launched chipset sports the latest Qualcomm X9 LTE modem instead of the X8 LTE modem of its previous iteration. This increases the upload speed to 150 Mb/s from 100 Mb/s. The download speed remains the same 300 Mb/s.
- The Snapdragon 653 is compatible with dual camera arrangements.
- The latest SoC supports 8 GB of RAM which is double than its predecessor. The RAM technology remains the same dual channel 933 MHz LPDDR3 though.
- It features Qualcomm TruSignal for enhanced network reception.
Regarding availability, devices with Snapdragon 626 and 653 may start to ship within this year itself. However, the Snapdragon 427 will not arrive until early next year.
