Snapdragon 778G goes official: A midrange sip from the chalice of power
Smartphones are getting more and more powerful each year, and midrangers are no exception. Today, during its annual 5G Summit, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 778G chipset, further bridging the gap between high-tier midrange devices and true flagship phones.
This SoC shares DNA with the Snapdragon 780G platform announced earlier this year. Actually, you’ll be hard-pressed to find the difference between the two, and one of the main reasons for the existence of the new chip is to battle the silicon shortage plaguing the industry for the past couple of months.
The Snapdragon 778G is a 6nm chip unlike the 5nm 780G, and most likely it will be manufactured in a different foundry to tackle the shortage situation.
The Snapdragon 778G comes equipped with the same Spectra 570 triple ISP unit found in the 780G. It’s a powerful system that allows information to be captured and processed from up to three cameras simultaneously, and this includes both still images and videos.
The 778G is also Elite Gaming certified, meaning gamers will be pleased to get nifty little features such as Variable Rate Shading (VRS) and Game Quick Touch in more midrange devices. The Adreno 642L GPU inside is a bit of an unknown quantity at the moment but it should deliver up to 40% improved performance over its predecessor - the Adreno 620 - at least on paper.
The new chipset supports mmWave and sub-6 5G connectivity thanks to the integrated Snapdragon X53 5G Modem-RF System. The FastConnect 6700 Connectivity System, allows for multi-gigabit Wi-Fi 6 speeds (up to 2.9 Gbps), and there’s also Bluetooth 5.2 support on board.
You can expect the new Snapdragon 778G platform to arrive in upcoming high-tier smartphones from Honor, iQOO, Motorola, OPPO, Realme, and Xiaomi in the second quarter of 2021.
This SoC shares DNA with the Snapdragon 780G platform announced earlier this year. Actually, you’ll be hard-pressed to find the difference between the two, and one of the main reasons for the existence of the new chip is to battle the silicon shortage plaguing the industry for the past couple of months.
The Snapdragon 778G comes equipped with the same Spectra 570 triple ISP unit found in the 780G. It’s a powerful system that allows information to be captured and processed from up to three cameras simultaneously, and this includes both still images and videos.
Phones equipped with the SD 778G will also be able to shoot 4K HDR10+ videos with improved color, contrast, and detail. In the AI department, the Snapdragon 778G platform relies on the Hexagon 770 processor that can deliver up to 12 TOPs. In practice, this means more clever AI image-processing magic like noise reduction, night mode image stitching, and more.
The 778G is also Elite Gaming certified, meaning gamers will be pleased to get nifty little features such as Variable Rate Shading (VRS) and Game Quick Touch in more midrange devices. The Adreno 642L GPU inside is a bit of an unknown quantity at the moment but it should deliver up to 40% improved performance over its predecessor - the Adreno 620 - at least on paper.
Things that are NOT allowed: