Qualcomm announces new Snapdragon 600 and 400 series SoCs for high volume LTE market

Qualcomm announced the launch of its latest system-on-chips in the Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 400 series, which will be targetting mid-range and entry-level handsets with advanced LTE chips. The four chipsets released by Qualcomm include Snapdragon 618, 620 from the Snapdragon 600 series and Snapdragon 415 and 425 from the Snapdragon 400 series. While Qualcomm’s high end chipset, the Snapdragon 810 is already present in phones such as LG G Flex 2 and Xiaomi Mi Note Pro, but thanks to the high price of these handsets, they are targetted at a limited audience. The mid-range and entry-level market is where the main volumes lie and Qualcomm wants a pie of this huge segment which is currently seeing a lot of competition from its rival MediaTek. Qualcomm has also removed the Gobi branding from its LTE modems. All future Qualcomm LTE modems will come under the Snapdragon branding. The naming convention will involve an X followed by a number. The higher the number, the speedier the LTE connection. Snapdragon 415 and 425: Brings octa-core CPUs to Snapdragon 400 series Snapdragon 400 series SoCs have been seen in a lot of entry level handsets, specially the Snapdragon 410 chipset. With the Snapdragon 415 and 425, Qualcomm is getting an octa-core chipset in the Snapdragon 400 series for the first time. Both will feature the eight-core Cortex A53 processors. Built on the 28nm manufacturing process, both these chipsets will be compatible with the 64-bit instruction set. Some of the top features that will be seen on the 415 and 425 includes dual image signal processors (ISPs) to improve camera speeds in the mid-range and entry-level smartphones. Both will feature Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 2.0 feature, which lets you charge your phones at a rapid rate. The graphics section will also get a boost, with the Adreno 405 being the main GPU, which is currently present on the Snapdragon 615 SoC. This means DirectX 11.2 support for Windows handsets, hardware decode support for 1080p H.265 video  and it will support up to full HD display resolutions. The main difference between the Snapdragon 415 and 425 chipsets is the LTE modems used. The 415 comes with the X5 LTE modem which supports download / upload speeds of 150 / 50 Mbps, also known as Cat4 speeds. The Snapdragon 425 on the other hand includes X8 LTE modem which gives download / upload speeds of 300 / 100 Mbps. Now these are theoretical speeds, the real life speeds will of course be less. While the phones sporting the Snapdragon 415 will be seen in the first half of the year, those with the Snapdragon 425 will be seen only in the second half. Snapdragon 618 and 620: Will cater to the mid-range segment with Cortex A72 processors The Snapdragon 618 and 620 will be the first chipsets from Qualcomm that will house the Cortex A72 processors. According to ARM, the Cortex A72 is twice as fast as the Cortex A57 which is seen on the Snapdragon 810 chipset. So in effect, the Snapdragon 800 level performance can be expected from the 618 and 620 SoCs when they start coming out in handsets in the second half of 2015. The Snapdragon 618 will house two Cortex A72 cores and four smaller Cortex A53 cores in a 6-core bit.LITTLE configuration. Similarly, the higher end Snapdragon 620 will have four Cortex A72 cores and four Cortex A53 cores making it an octa-core processor sporting SoC. Qualcomm hasn’t given much details on the GPU part that is being employed, but says that it will be a next-gen Adreno GPU. On the feature front, both the 618 and 620 chipsets will get support for 4K video capture and playback and it will support the H.265 hardware decode support. It will also feature support for Quick Charge 2.0 and dual image signal processors. On the display front, the two chipsets can support up to 2K phone displays as well as 4K external displays. Both the chipsets will also come with the X8 LTE modem which will give download / upload speeds of 300 / 100 Mbps. Handsets sporting these SoCs will be seen in the second half of 2015.