Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 617 and 430: high-end features go midrange
Along with fleshing out the specs of its new Snapdragon 820 high-end chipset, Qualcomm took to the airwaves today to unveil its new processors for the midrange and entry-level mobile devices of the future. Nestled in the 6-series and 4-series, the two new chipsets introduce plenty of novelties that would make phone designers go "hmmm" before they turn to rival gangs like MediaTek.
Starting off with the lower-end Snapdragon 430, this one is an octa-core Cortex-A53 undertaking, clocked at 1.2 GHz, with upgraded Adreno 505 graphics processing unit, and dual Image Signal Processors, supporting up to 21 MP cameras. Yep, in a low-end chipset. Not only that, but the 430 supports Qualcomm's new Quick Charge 3.0 technology, which can juice up your handset 80% in half an hour, should the maker decide to enable this function of the chipset. To top it all off, Snapdragon 430 supports X6 LTE, with Cat 4 downlink speeds of up to 150 Mbps, and 2x10 MHz Carrier Aggregation, plus Cat 5 uplink speed of up to 75 Mbps for the first time.
The new midrange star, Snapdragon 617, will battle directly with MediaTek's creations, as it is an octa-core Cortex-A53 setup, clocked at up to 1.5 GHz. It, however, ups the ante not only in MHz speed, but in connectivity as well, sporting the new X8 LTE modem, featuring support for Cat 7 download speeds of up to 300 Mbps and upload speeds of up to 100 Mbps using bi-directional 2x20 MHz carrier aggregation. It has dual-ISP configuration as well, that can power up to 21 MP cameras, and Quick Charge 3.0 is par for the course.
Snapdragon 617 will appear in phones as soon as this year, while Snapdragon 430 models will be hitting shelves in the second quarter of next year.
source: Qualcomm
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