Qualcomm's updated Snapdragon 600/400 chips bump up performance by up to 10 percent

Qualcomm has added new members to its mid-range and entry level family of Snapdragon chipsets. The new chipsets that have been announced at the on-going Qualcomm 4G/5G summit are the Snapdragon 653, 626 and 427. These new chipsets will replace the Snapdragon 652, 625 and 425 respectively.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 653 chipset will most likely sport an octa-core processor. Qualcomm claims a 10 percent bump in the CPU performance. It will support dual-camera setups and have provision for up to 8GB addressable RAM. The Snapdragon 653 will also come with Snapdragon X9 LTE which is a Cat 7 LTE modem.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 626 chipset also claims to offer a 10 percent bump in CPU performance, and will come with Snapdragon X9 LTE as well. Just like the 653, the Snapdragon 626 will also support dual camera setups. It is also expected to come with Qualcomm’s TruSignal antenna boost technology. The TruSignal feature is designed to improve signal reception in congested areas.

Qualcomm says that in both cases, the 10 percent improvement in performance is a result of a clock speed bump, which now hits 1.95GHz.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 427 chipset is expected to come with an integrated DSP and will also support dual cameras. Just like the 626, the Snapdragon 427 sill also support X9 LTE and TruSignal antenna boost technology.

The Snapdragon X9 LTE modem has a downlink speed of up to 300 Mbps and uplink of up to 150 Mbps. It achieves this with 2x20 MHz carrier aggregation. It will support Smart Wi-fi calling as well.

All these chipsets will also natively support Qualcomm Quick Charge 3.0 which offers 27 percent faster and 45 percent efficient charging over Quick Charge 2.0 according to Qualcomm.

According to Alex Katouzian, vice president for product management, it has been Qualcomm’s strategy to introduce premium features first to the highest end chipsets and then eventually into other Snapdragon products.

“A great example of this strategy is the use of dual camera for capturing high quality photos that now range across our portfolio, including our 400 series mobile solution. Doing this allows our customers and smartphone developers to reach a broad subscriber base with advanced features and great end-user experiences,” said Katouzian.

The Snapdragon 653 and 626 chipsets are expected to be commercially available by the end of 2016. The Snapdragon 427 chipset is expected to be in commercial devices in early 2017.

All new chipsets are socket and software compatible with the chips they replace.