From the budget segment all the way up to the flagship tier and everything in between, here’s what you need to know about Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.<\/b>
\nQualcomm\u2019s Snapdragon processors are the most ubiquitous SoCs in the Android smartphone space. Samsung uses Snapdragon for its Galaxy S line in the US and Korea, and it also powers devices from LG, OnePlus, and essentially every OEM making flagship-grade phones that doesn\u2019t also make its own silicon. There\u2019s a very high chance that you\u2019re reading this on a device using a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor right now. Snapdragon chips aren\u2019t just found in expensive flagship smartphones though. There\u2019s a whole portfolio of processors built for handsets at various price points. Performance and features differ a fair bit between these models, so let\u2019s break down how the company\u2019s latest SoCs compare and what capabilities you should expect. Looking for the very best Qualcomm smartphone processor? Then you want the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 865 Plus, the firm\u2019s latest and most powerful chipsets. The standard Snapdragon 865 sports a tri-cluster semi-custom CPU arrangement, featuring one powerful 2.84Ghz Cortex-A77 core, three less powerful but still very capable 2.4Ghz Cortex-A77 cores, and four low-powered but efficient Cortex-A55 cores. Qualcomm\u2019s Adreno graphics hardware also tends to lead the industry in terms of sheer power and capabilities, and the 865\u2019s Adreno 650 continues that trend. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 865 Plus differs from the vanilla chipset by offering a 3.1Ghz Prime CPU core, while the other seven CPU cores remain unchanged. The Plus variant also features a 10% boost to graphics rendering, presumably via a clock speed boost. The 865 Plus also sports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 as opposed to Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 on the vanilla silicon. The 800 series is Qualcomm\u2019s flagship tier and, up until 2018\u2019s Snapdragon 845, used a cluster of powerful cores and a cluster of power-saving cores. But 2019\u2019s Snapdragon 855 series marked the first time we saw the three-tier system of heavy\/medium\/light CPU cores. Qualcomm also used to offer heavily customized CPU cores until the Snapdragon 821 back in 2016. But these days, it uses Arm\u2019s Cortex cores and makes a few tweaks to them instead. However, the company has invested heavily in other bits of silicon in its chipsets, such as the GPUs, modems, and image signal processors for cameras. Speaking of camera technology, these are Qualcomm\u2019s first chipsets to support 8K video recording, joining Samsung\u2019s Exynos 982X series and Exynos 990. Read: Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 vs Kirin 990 vs Exynos 990 \u2014 How do they compare? The industry shift to on-device machine learning has also seen Qualcomm adapt with its flagship SoCs. It uses the top-end Hexagon digital signal processor for these tasks, with the Snapdragon 865 duo\u2019s Hexagon 698 DSP also featuring an upgraded \u201cTensor\u201d accelerator that\u2019s 35% more power-efficient than the Snapdragon 855\u2019s ML-focused silicon. In plain English, that means machine learning tasks like face detection, image recognition, natural language processing, and other activities should consume far less power. In fact, Qualcomm also said that the Snapdragon 865 series is capable of on-device voice translation. The Snapdragon 865 series is also 5G-enabled, supporting both mmWave and sub-6Ghz standards. It\u2019s not the first 5G flagship chipset range from the brand though, as last year\u2019s Snapdragon 855 series also offered next-generation connectivity. Both the 855 series and the 865 duo offer external 5G modems though, unlike some rivals. This generally means more power consumption compared to a processor with an integrated 5G modem. Qualcomm isn\u2019t the only company making flagship processors, with rival chipsets including the Samsung Exynos 990, Huawei\u2019s HiSilicon Kirin 990, and MediaTek\u2019s Dimensity 1000. But it\u2019s generally considered the top dog in terms of features and brand name, although other competitors generally have plenty to offer too. Qualcomm\u2019s Snapdragon 700 series isn\u2019t quite as straightforward as its flagship 800 series. This is due to the sheer number of them, as well as the lower end chips crossing into the 600 series. The Snapdragon 700 series is essentially an upper mid-range family of processors, with the Snapdragon 765 series being the most popular of the lot. This is Qualcomm\u2019s first mid-range 5G family, supporting both mmWave and sub-6Ghz flavors of 5G. It also offers a similar triple power domain CPU design as the flagship processors, albeit in a 1+1+6 layout rather than 1+3+4 seen on the flagship SoCs. Aside from the addition of 5G and a tweaked CPU layout, the Snapdragon 765 series also stands out from other 700-series processors due to its beefier Adreno 620 GPU. The 765 family also sports a tiny 7nm manufacturing processes, on par with flagship chipsets. A smaller manufacturing process generally means a more power-efficient design when everything else is equal. Qualcomm has since launched the Snapdragon 768G too, essentially being an overclocked version of the Snapdragon 765G. The most powerful CPU core gets a clock speed boost from 2.4Ghz to 2.8Ghz, the Adreno 620 GPU gets a 15% speed boost, and you\u2019re also getting Bluetooth 5.2 support. The only phone to use this chipset right now is the Redmi K30 Racing Edition though. The Snapdragon 765 series and Snapdragon 768G still have a few things in common with the Snapdragon 730 series and Snapdragon 720G, which are next on the totem pole in terms of power and capabilities. We\u2019ve got octa-core CPUs featuring two powerful Cortex-A76 CPUs and six Cortex-A55 cores, and powerful Spectra image signal processors for high-resolution imaging. These aren\u2019t the only Snapdragon 700 series chips, as the series debuted with 2018\u2019s Snapdragon 710 (with the Snapdragon 712 being a mild upgrade). These two chips still offer a 2+6 CPU core layout, but use older Cortex-A75 cores instead of the Cortex-A76 seen in newer 700 series SoCs. So expect the new chipsets to edge out these ones when it comes to single-core performance, but you\u2019re still getting good performance either way. The Snapdragon 712 and 710 also offer inferior GPUs to the aforementioned stablemates, so gaming performance won\u2019t be quite as smooth. Still, these GPUs are pretty powerful and should be able to handle most advanced games well enough. The Snapdragon 700 range might lack the CPU and GPU power of the flagship Snapdragon 800 family then, but it has a few features in common with the top-end silicon nonetheless. You\u2019re still getting capable Hexagon DSPs for better machine learning, support for 90Hz or 120Hz refresh rates, Quick Charge 4 or 4+ support, and Bluetooth 5. X capabilities. Furthermore, all of these aforementioned chipsets support 192MP snapshots, although they top out at a far lower resolution for multi-frame processing (e.g. HDR, night mode). You won\u2019t get 4K\/60fps or 8K here either, but 4K at 30fps is basically guaranteed at this tier. Where the Snapdragon 700 series tries to bridge the gap between mid-range and flagship, the Snapdragon 600 series is mostly focused on the ~$300 and under segment. We say \u201cmostly,\u201d because the newly announced Snapdragon 690 actually looks like it can duke it out with the Snapdragon 765 series. The 8nm Snapdragon 690 is the first 5G-enabled Snapdragon 600 series processor, although it seems to offer sub-6Ghz 5G only rather than mmWave seen on Qualcomm\u2019s more expensive 5G chips. Nevertheless, it\u2019s using a powerful octacore CPU (2x Cortex-A77 and 6x Cortex-A55), and a beefy Adreno 619L GPU. In fact, Qualcomm says you can expect a CPU and graphics boost of 20% and 60% respectively over the Snapdragon 675. Other notable features include 4K HDR video for the first time in the Snapdragon 600 series, the firm\u2019s Tensor Accelerator machine learning silicon, HEIF\/HEVC photo and video capture for reduced file sizes, and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity. Go down a step and you\u2019ll find the Snapdragon 675 and the Snapdragon 670. These two SoCs share a lot in common with the first Snapdragon 700 series processors (e.g. Snapdragon 710). The Snapdragon 670 and 675 offer powerful Cortex-A75 and A76 CPU cores respectively, paired with low-power Cortex-A55 cores. You can also expect solid GPUs (albeit inferior to the 700 series), Bluetooth 5 support, and Quick Charge 4+ capabilities. The 670 and 675 also deliver the 700 family\u2019s support for features like 4K recording,192MP snapshots, and 48MP photos with multi-frame processing. Read: How to understand Kryo CPU numbering on Qualcomm Snapdragon processors Go down even further and you get the Snapdragon 665, which is a mild improvement over 2017\u2019s Snapdragon 660. Both of these chips use much older CPU cores (four Cortex-A73 paired with four Cortex-A53 cores), and less capable GPUs on paper. So expect general performance, gaming, and camera performance to lag behind the Snapdragon 670 and 675. In fact, the Snapdragon 665 and 660 top out at 48MP snapshot support (i.e. without multi-frame processing such as HDR), so don\u2019t hold your breath for 64MP or 108MP cameras with these processors. Qualcomm has also recently launched the Snapdragon 662, essentially being a Snapdragon 665 clone with Bluetooth 5.1 capabilities and HEIF support. The latter means better quality pictures with no file size increase over previous formats, or the same quality at half the file size. Otherwise, the bread and butter of Qualcomm\u2019s 600-series is the Snapdragon 636 and 632. These processors target a lower price point than previously mentioned 600-series silicon, and also bring big cores to the table (four Cortex-A73 and four Cortex-A53). The 636 still offers a fast modem and Quick Charge 4, which the Snapdragon 632 lacks. Either way, both of these chips use Adreno 500-series GPUs, making them less adept at gaming than more recent Snapdragon 600 series chips. The Snapdragon 636 and 632 chipsets really mark the cross-over point between mid-range and low-end capabilities. But they still sport those ever-important big CPU cores, which means general performance (e.g. system navigation, launching\/loading apps) shouldn\u2019t be an issue. Now we come to the least capable Snapdragon series (aside from the now dormant Snapdragon 200 family), designed for entry-level smartphones. But there\u2019s good news here, as the latest Snapdragon 400 chipset is actually a massive improvement. The new Snapdragon 460 has a lot in common with the Snapdragon 662, including heavyweight CPU cores (four Cortex-A73 and four Cortex-A53), the same GPU, HEIF support, Bluetooth 5.1, and even 48MP multi-frame capture capabilities. The only real downside is that it\u2019s expected to appear in phones at the end of 2020 rather than being available now. Otherwise, the Snapdragon 450 and 439 are the main 400-series chips you\u2019ll find in phones today. These offer octa-core designs based on low-powered Cortex-A53 cores, very modest LTE speeds, and unspectacular Adreno 500-series GPUs. In other words, phones powered by these chips are more likely to struggle with advanced games and everyday system performance. Their own major saving grace is that they\u2019re pretty power-efficient owing to 14nm and 12nm manufacturing processes respectively. The least capable chipset in the Snapdragon 400 family is the Snapdragon 429 though. It halves the core count to just four power-sipping Cortex-A53 cores, tops out at HD+ screen resolution (no 1080p here), and supports two 8MP cameras or one 16MP sensor. It\u2019s not all bad though, as there\u2019s still Quick Charge 3.0 support, and Bluetooth 5 capabilities. Just don\u2019t expect triple cameras or good performance in 3D games. The Snapdragon 400 series does the basics well enough, such as calling, social media, WhatsApp, and web browsing. But those wanting good gaming performance, the fastest charging, the latest Bluetooth standard, and the best cameras should look elsewhere. That\u2019s all for our Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC guide! Let us know your thoughts on the silicon giant\u2019s portfolio in the comments.<\/p>\n